Multi-transmission and reception point operation

ABSTRACT

Supporting transmission of multiple hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgments (HARQ-ACKS) within a single slot may include encoding a first HARQ-ACK and a second HARQ-ACK within the single slot for transmission to a base station. The first HARQ-ACK may be transmitted via a first physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and the second HARQ-ACK may be transmitted via a second PUCCH. Based on encoding the first HARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACK within the single slot, one or more additional uplink (UL) signals colliding with at least one of the first HARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACK within the single slot may be responded to based on a configuration of the UE.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This application relates generally to wireless communication systems,and includes multi-transmission and reception point (TRP) operation.

BACKGROUND

Wireless mobile communication technology uses various standards andprotocols to transmit data between a base station and a wireless mobiledevice. Wireless communication system standards and protocols caninclude the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) long termevolution (LTE) (e.g., 4G) or new radio (NR) (e.g., 5G); the Instituteof Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.16 standard, which iscommonly known to industry groups as worldwide interoperability formicrowave access (WiMAX); and the IEEE 802.11 standard for wirelesslocal area networks (WLAN), which is commonly known to industry groupsas Wi-Fi. In 3GPP radio access networks (RANs) in LTE systems, the basestation can include a RAN Node such as an Evolved Universal TerrestrialRadio Access Network (E-UTRAN) Node B (also commonly denoted as evolvedNode B, enhanced Node B, eNodeB, or eNB) and/or Radio Network Controller(RNC) in an E-UTRAN, which communicate with a wireless communicationdevice, known as user equipment (UE). In fifth generation (5G) wirelessRANs, RAN Nodes can include a 5G Node, NR node (also referred to as anext generation Node B or g Node B (gNB)).

RANs use a radio access technology (RAT) to communicate between the RANNode and UE. RANs can include global system for mobile communications(GSM), enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE) RAN (GERAN),Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN), and/or E-UTRAN,which provide access to communication services through a core network.Each of the RANs operates according to a specific 3GPP RAT. For example,the GERAN implements GSM and/or EDGE RAT, the UTRAN implements universalmobile telecommunication system (UMTS) RAT or other 3GPP RAT, theE-UTRAN implements LTE RAT, and NG-RAN implements 5G RAT. In certaindeployments, the E-UTRAN may also implement 5G RAT.

Frequency bands for 5G NR may be separated into two different frequencyranges. Frequency Range 1 (FR1) includes sub-6 GHz frequency bands, someof which are bands that may be used by previous standards, but maypotentially be extended to cover potential new spectrum offerings from410 MHz to 7125 MHz. Frequency Range 2 (FR2) includes frequency bandsfrom 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz. Bands in the millimeter wave (mmWave) rangeof FR2 have shorter range but higher available bandwidth than bands inthe FR1. Skilled persons will recognize these frequency ranges, whichare provided by way of example, may change from time to time or fromregion to region.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

To easily identify the discussion of any particular element or act, themost significant digit or digits in a reference number refer to thefigure number in which that element is first introduced.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

To easily identify the discussion of any particular element or act, themost significant digit or digits in a reference number refer to thefigure number in which that element is first introduced.

FIG. 1 illustrates an aspect of the subject matter in accordance withone embodiment.

FIG. 2 illustrates an aspect of the subject matter in accordance withone embodiment.

FIG. 3 illustrates a method in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 4 illustrates a method in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 5 illustrates a method in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 6 illustrates a system in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 7 illustrates an infrastructure equipment in accordance with oneembodiment.

FIG. 8 illustrates a platform in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 9 illustrates a device in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 10 illustrates example interfaces in accordance with oneembodiment.

FIG. 11 illustrates components in accordance with one embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Release 16 3GPP (Rel-16) includes an enhancement to support MultiTransmission and Reception Point (TRP) operation, including: 1. MultiDownlink Control Information (DCI) Multi-TRP (MTRP) operation (MDCIMTRP), which may include two TRP that each schedule an independentdownlink control information (DCI) and two physical downlink sharedchannel (PDSCH) for the UE to receive; and 2. Single DCI Multi-TRPoperation (SDCI MTRP), including a. Spatial Domain Multiplexing (SDM)scheme—comprises two fully overlapping PDSCH of the same Transport Block(TB), b. Frequency Domain Multiplexing (FDMSchemeA)—comprises a singlePDSCH that is transmitted from two TRPs in an interleaved manner (i.e.,only one TB is transmitted), c. FDMSchemeB—comprises two PDSCH that areeach transmitted from one TRP in an interleaved way (i.e., two of thesame TBs are transmitted), d. Time Division Multiplexing(TDMSchemeA)—comprises an intra-slot PDSCH repetition of the same TB,and e. Scheme 4—comprises up to 16 inter-slot PDSCH repetitions.

Despite the enhancements associated with MTRP described above, severalissues still remain, as are discussed further throughout thisdisclosure. First, Uplink Control Information (UCI) multiplexing isdiscussed for situations that include two physical uplink controlchannel (PUCCH) with hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgment(HARQ-ACK) within a single slot. Second, generating a Type-I HARQcodebook for TDMSchemeA is discussed. By way of background, TDMSchemeAincludes two PDSCH within a slot that have the same duration and similarresource allocation, except that their starting symbols have a constantoffset. In addition, the Type-I HARQ codebook may be a static (orsemi-static) codebook that includes all HARQ-ACK data for any possiblePDSCH reception. While such a codebook may have larger overhead, it mayalso allow for simpler generation by a UE.

Third, the default transmission configuration indicator (TCI) for CCSwith MDCI MTRP and the default TCI for CCS with SDCI MTRP. Inparticular, a default beam may be particularly useful when a UE does nothave enough time to switch the beam or if a beam is not configured, inwhich case the default beam is used. Each of these issues and solutionswill now be discussed in turn.

FIG. 1 , illustrates a slot environment 100 having multiple HARQ-ACKs(i.e., HARQ-ACK 106 and HARQ-ACK 108) by two PUCCH within a single slot112 on timeline 110, as well as a PUSCH 102 and a PUCCH 104. ForMulti-DCI based Multi-TRP operation, two separate HARQ-ACK PUCCH withina slot are supported under the following 3 schemes: 1. Long PUCCH+LongPUCCH; 2. Long PUCCH+Short PUCCH; and 3. Short PUCCH+Long PUCCH. Forpurposes of this disclosure, a long PUCCH may be considered a PUCCHcomprising a length of between four and fourteen symbols and more thantwo UCI bits while a short PUCCH may be considered a PUCCH comprising alength of one or two symbols and one or two UCI bits.

Notably, previous to Rel-16, multiple HARQ-ACKs within a slot were notsupported. In addition to being a recent change in support, allowingmultiple HARQ-ACKs can create complexity for UEs regarding the manner inwhich such support is handled. In particular, decisions regarding how tomultiplex each transmission, which transmissions to drop (if any), andso forth. For instance, with respect to the example of FIG. 1 , the UEwould attempt to determine how to combine/multiplex the two HARQ-ACKs(or drop one of them), then attempt to multiplex (or drop) the otherPUCCH (i.e., PUCCH 104), and finally would determine how to combine (ordrop) the PUSCH 102 with the other multiplexed PUCCH that weren'tdropped. It should be noted, however, that the example slot environmentof FIG. 1 is only one embodiment and is therefore, not meant to belimiting in any way. For instance, the slot 112 may alternatively, oradditionally, include a scheduling request or other uplink signalinginstead of, or in addition, to the PUSCH 102 and/or the PUCCH 104.

Accordingly, to resolve these issues, the following approaches may beimplemented: 1. When a UE is configured to transmit more than oneHARQ-ACK PUCCH within a slot, the UE may not be configured to handleother PUCCH transmissions colliding in the same slot; 2. When a UE isconfigured to transmit more than one HARQ-ACK PUCCH within a slot, theUE may not be configured to handle PUSCH transmissions colliding in thesame slot; 3. When a UE is configured to transmit more than one HARQ-ACKPUCCH within a slot, simultaneously, the UE may be configured with otherPUCCH transmission colliding in the same slot. In such an embodiment,the general UCI multiplexing rule in terms of the PUCCH resourcedetermination applies (i.e., 1. Determination of multiplexing ordropping the two HARQ-ACKs, 2. Determination of multiplexing or droppingadditional PUCCH, and 2. Determination of multiplexing or droppingaddition PUSCH or other uplink signaling (e.g., a scheduling request)),with the following alternatives: a. Both HARQ-ACKs are to bemultiplexed; b. Only the first HARQ-ACK is multiplexed if the PUCCHpayload is limited; and c. Only the second HARQ-ACK is multiplexed ifthe PUCCH payload is limited; and 4. When a UE is configured to transmitmore than one HARQ-ACK PUCCH within a slot, simultaneously, the UE isconfigured with PUCCH and PUSCH transmissions colliding in the sameslot. In such embodiments, the same general UCI multiplexing ruledescribed above applies (i.e., 1. Determination of multiplexing ordropping the two HARQ-ACKs, 2. Determination of multiplexing or droppingadditional PUCCH, and 2. Determination of multiplexing or droppingaddition PUSCH or other uplink signaling (e.g., a scheduling request)).Alternatively, the UE may perform PUCCH multiplexing with the PUSCHusing one of the following options: a. Both HARQ-ACKs are to bemultiplexed; b. Only the first HARQ-ACK is multiplexed if the PUSCHpayload is limited; or c. Only the second HARQ-ACK is multiplexed if thePUSCH payload is limited.

By way of background regarding MTRP Type-I codebook generation forTDMSchemeA, Type I HARQ-ACK codebook is a semi-static HARQ-ACK codebookbased on: 1. The possible PDSCH to HARQ-ACK timing, which includes a K1offset being configured. In particular, for every HARQ-ACK, the gNB mayschedule an offset between a PDSCH and when an associated HARQ-ACK is tobe transmitted by the UE. The gNB may then decode the received HARQ-ACKduring the scheduled slot. In addition, K1 comprises a table provided bythe gNB to the UE. The gNB can then indicate to the UE the particularvalue, location, or timing within the table that should be used for theoffset (i.e., when, or a range of when, the HARQ-ACK in response to thePDSCH may be transmitted); and 2. The possible Start and LengthIndicator of PDSCH with a Slot (SLIV) being configured, which allows thegNB to indicate to the UE the precise location of the PDSCH in the timedomain. Again, the SLIV comprises a table and is provided to the UE bythe gNB. The location of the PDSCH is also dynamically indicated via DCI(note that only the first PDSCH in TDMSchemeA is configured under SLIV).In addition, a HARQ-ACK is reserved in the codebook if the transmissionis valid.

FIG. 2 illustrates a TDMSchemeA environment 200 that includes twoPDSCHs, a PDSCH 202 and a PDSCH 204, within a slot 208 on timeline 206.In such a TDMSchemeA, the offset from the end of the first PDSCH 202 tothe beginning of the second PDSCH 204 is statically configured by radioresource control (RRC). Notably, both PDSCHs (i.e., the PDSCH 202 andthe PDSCH 204) appear to be exactly the same because they have the samerelative location in terms of frequency and the same duration in termsof time. The only perceptible difference is the offset between eachPDSCH's starting symbol offset, which is statically configured.

For each TDMSchemeA Single DCI (SDCI) Multi-TRP (MTRP) scheduling andthe Type-I HARQ-ACK codebook, a HARQ-ACK is reserved with the followingthree options: 1. Only if the first PDSCH (e.g., the PDSCH 202) isvalid; 2. Only if the second PDSCH (e.g., the PDSCH 204) is valid; or 3.Only if both the first and the second PDSCH are valid. Notably, forpurposes of this disclosure, a PDSCH is considered valid if it is notcolliding with any uplink (UL) signal.

By way of background regarding default TCIs for cross carrier scheduling(CCS) with Multi-DCI or Single-DCI Multi-TRP operation, before a UEdetects a PDCCH, the UE may not be aware of quasi-co-location (QCL)relationships to be used to receive a corresponding PDSCH. Notably, afirst and second antenna port may be considered quasi co-located, ifproperties of a channel over which a symbol of the second antenna portis conveyed can be inferred from a channel over which a symbol of thefirst antenna port is conveyed. Furthermore, a default TCI may beutilized to indicate QCL to thereby allow the UE to receive/decode aPDSCH corresponding to the PDCCH. In addition, a control resource set(CORESET), comprising a set of physical resources and a set ofparameters that is used to carry PDCCH/DCI, associated with a schedulingcell may be utilized to determine a default TCI. Furthermore, a CORESETmay include an identification (ID) parameter and a parameter referred toas a CORESETPoolIndex that includes zero, one, or two values (two valuesare always included when MDCI MTRP is supported) that may be utilized indetermining a default TCI.

As a general process for determining a default TCI (or default beam), ascheduling cell may begin the process by transmitting a scheduling DCI.The UE may then decode the scheduling DCI in a particular CORESET, whichCORESET includes a CORES ETPoolIndex parameter that is decoded as partof decoding the scheduling DCI. Now, in order find the default beam (ordefault TCI, in this case), the UE looks to the latest PDCCH monitoringslot, in which the UE may monitor multiple CORESETs. Among thesemultiple CORESETs, a subset (potentially all of them) may have the sameCORESETPoolIndex parameter value as the scheduling DCI. From all theCORESETs having the same CORESETPoolIndex parameter value as thescheduling DCI, the UE may choose the CORESET having the lowest ID anduse the corresponding beam as the default beam.

In more specific situations, a default TCI for cross carrier scheduling(CCS) with Multi-DCI Multi-TRP operation may be determined by utilizingthe following solutions: 1. Follow the scheduling cell (i.e., the cellthat sends the scheduling DCI), which may always be configured with MDCIMTRP, such that the default TCI comprises the CORESET, in the latestPDCCH monitoring slot, with the lowest ID having a CORESETPoolIndexvalue that is the same as the CORESETPoolIndex parameter value of thescheduling DCI; or 2. Follow the scheduled cell (i.e., the cell thatsends the PDSCH), such that: a. If the scheduled cell is configured withMDCI MTRP (i.e., two CORESETPoolIndex), the default TCI comprises theCORESET, in the latest PDCCH monitoring slot, having the lowest ID andthe same CORESETPoolIndex parameter value as the CORESETPoolIndexparameter value of the scheduling DCI; or b. If the scheduled cell isnot configured with MDCI MTRP, the default TCI comprises: i. The CORESETwith the lowest ID in the latest PDCCH monitoring slot (and the samebeam is assumed for PDSCH irrespective of the schedulingCORESETPoolIndex); or ii. The activated PDSCH TCI with the lowest indexin the scheduled cell.

Regarding a default TCI for CCS with Single DCI Multi-TRP operation, thefollowing solutions may be utilized: 1. The default TCI is the PDSCHactivated TCI codepoint with the lowest ID that has two TCI states inthe scheduled cell; 2. The default TCI is the PDS CH activated TCIcodepoint with the lowest ID that has two TCI states in the schedulingcell; or 3. When no TCI codepoint has two TCI states: a. The default TCIis the PDSCH activated TCI codepoint with the lowest ID; b. The defaultTCI is the CORESET with the lowest ID; or c. The default TCI is theCORESET with the lowest ID in the latest PDCCH monitoring slot. Notably,a codepoint may comprise a numerical value defining a code space.Furthermore, a codepoint may comprise a single character or indicateformatting.

FIG. 3 illustrates a method 300 for supporting transmission of multipleHARQ-ACKs within a single slot. In block 302, the method 300 encodes afirst hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) and asecond HARQ-ACK within a single slot for transmission to a base station,the first HARQ-ACK being transmitted via a first physical uplink controlchannel (PUCCH) and the second HARQ-ACK being transmitted via a secondPUCCH. In block 304, the method 300, based on encoding the firstHARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACK within the single slot, responds to oneor more additional uplink (UL) signals colliding with at least one ofthe first HARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACK within the single slot basedon a configuration of the UE.

For instance, in an embodiment, the configuration of the UE may compriserefraining from transmitting addition UL signals via PUCCH that wouldcollide with at least one of the first HARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACKwithin the single slot. In another embodiment, the configuration of theUE may comprise refraining from transmitting addition UL signals viaPUSCH that would collide with at least one of the first HARQ-ACK and thesecond HARQ-ACK within the single slot.

In another embodiment, the method 300 may also further comprise, whenthe configuration of the UE comprises transmitting an additional ULsignal via PUCCH that would collide with at least one of the firstHARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACK within the single slot, multiplexingboth the first HARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACK, as well as multiplexingthe additional UL signal via PUCCH with the multiplexed first and secondHARQ-ACKs.

In another embodiment, the method 300 may also further comprise, whenthe configuration of the UE comprises transmitting an additional ULsignal via PUCCH that would collide with at least one of the firstHARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACK within the single slot, multiplexingboth the first HARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACK, multiplexing the firstHARQ-ACK with the UL signal via PUCCH if a payload of the UL signal viaPUCCH is limited, or multiplexing the second HARQ-ACK with the UL signalvia PUCCH if a payload of the UL signal via PUCCH is limited.

In another embodiment, the method 300 may also further comprise, whenthe configuration of the UE comprises transmitting a first additional ULsignal via PUCCH and a second additional UL signal via PUSCH that wouldcollide with at least one of the first HARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACKwithin the single slot, multiplexing both the first HARQ-ACK and thesecond HARQ-ACK, multiplexing the first additional UL signal via PUCCHwith the multiplexed first and second HARQ-ACKs, and multiplexing thesecond additional UL signal via PUSCH with the multiplexed first andsecond HARQ-ACKs and the multiplexed first additional UL signal viaPUCCH.

In another embodiment, the method 300 may also further comprise, whenthe configuration of the UE comprises transmitting a first additional ULsignal via PUCCH and a second additional UL signal via PUSCH that wouldcollide with at least one of the first HARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACKwithin the single slot, multiplexing both the first HARQ-ACK and thesecond HARQ-ACK, multiplexing the first HARQ-ACK with the secondadditional UL signal via PUSCH if a payload of the second additional ULsignal via PUSCH is limited, or multiplexing the second HARQ-ACK withthe second additional UL signal via PUSCH if a payload of the secondadditional UL signal via PUSCH is limited.

FIG. 4 illustrates a method 400 for generating an MTRP Type I hybridautomatic repeat request-acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) codebook forTDMSchemeA. In block 402, the method 400 generates a Type I hybridautomatic repeat request-acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) codebook for timedomain multiplexing Scheme A (TDMSchemeA). For instance, the Type IHARQ-ACK codebook for TDM-SchemeA may comprise a semi-static HARQ-ACKcodebook. In block 404, the method 400 decodes a first DL signalreceived via a first PDSCH and a second DL signal received via a secondPDSCH. In block 406, the method 400 processes a K1 offset tableassociated with determining when to transmit at least one HARQ-ACK inresponse to decoding the first DL signal received via the first PDSCHand the second DL signal received via the second PDSCH. The K1 offsettable may be received from a base station (e.g., a gNB). The basestation can then indicate to the UE a particular value, location, ortiming within the table that should be used for an offset (i.e., when,or a range of when, a HARQ-ACK in response to a PDSCH may betransmitted).

In block 408, the method 400 processes a Start and Length Indicator ofPDSCH with a Slot (SLIV) table associated with determining a preciselocation of at least one of the first DL signal received via the firstPDSCH and the second DL signal received via the second PDSCH within atime domain. The SLIV table may be received from the base station. TheSLIV table may allow the base station to indicate to the UE a preciselocation of a PDSCH in the time domain. In block 410, the method 400reserves a HARQ-ACK in the generated HARQ-ACK codebook based on avalidity of one or both of the first PDSCH and the second PDSCH, whereina given PDSCH is valid when the given PDSCH does not collide with anyuplink (UL) signal.

For instance, in an embodiment, reserving the HARQ-ACK in the codebookbased on the validity of one or both of the first PDSCH and the secondPDSCH comprises reserving the HARQ-ACK in the codebook only when thefirst PDSCH is valid. In another embodiment, reserving the HARQ-ACK inthe codebook based on the validity of one or both of the first PDSCH andthe second PDSCH comprises reserving the HARQ-ACK in the codebook onlywhen the second PDSCH is valid. In another embodiment, reserving theHARQ-ACK in the codebook based on the validity of one or both of thefirst PDSCH and the second PDSCH comprises reserving the HARQ-ACK in thecodebook only when both the first PDSCH and the second PDSCH are valid.

FIG. 5 illustrates a method 500 for determining a default TCI fordecoding/receiving downlink signals via PDSCH. In block 502, the method500 decodes a first downlink (DL) signal received via physical downlinkcontrol channel (PDCCH) from a scheduling cell, wherein decodingincludes determining a multi-transmission and reception point (MTRP)configuration for both the scheduling cell and a scheduled cellscheduled by the scheduling cell. For instance, the scheduling cell mayalways support MDCI MTRP, while the scheduled cell may support SDCI MTRPor MDCI MTRP. In block 504, the method 500, based at least partially onthe determined MTRP configuration of either or both of the schedulingcell and the scheduled cell, determines a default transmissionconfiguration indicator (TCI) for cross carrier scheduling (CCS) withMTRP.

For instance, in an embodiment, when determining the default TCI isbased at least partially on the DCI MTRP configuration of the schedulingcell, the default TCI comprises a control resource set (CORESET), in amost recent PDCCH monitoring slot, having a lowest identification (ID)and a CORESETPoolIndex value that comprise a same value as aCORESETPoolIndex value of a scheduling DCI. In another embodiment,determining the default TCI is based at least partially on the MTRPconfiguration of the scheduled cell.

In another embodiment, when the determined MTRP configuration of thescheduled cell supports multi-DCI MTRP, the default TCI comprises acontrol resource set (CORESET) in a most recent PDCCH monitoring slothaving a lowest identification (ID) and a CORESETPoolIndex value thatcomprises a same value as a CORESETPoolIndex value of a scheduling DCI.In another embodiment, when the MTRP configuration of the scheduled celldoes not support multi-DCI MTRP, the default TCI further comprises: acontrol resource set (CORESET) having a lowest identification (ID) in amost recent PDCCH monitoring slot, or an activated PDSCH TCI with alowest index in the scheduled cell.

In an embodiment, when the determined MTRP configuration of thescheduled cell and the scheduling cell both support single-DCI MTRP, thedefault TCI comprises an activated TCI codepoint for PDSCH with a lowestidentification (ID) that has two TCI states in the scheduling cell. Inan embodiment, when the determined MTRP configuration of the scheduledcell and the scheduling cell both support single-DCI MTRP, the defaultTCI comprises an activated TCI codepoint for PDSCH with a lowestidentification (ID) that has two TCI states in the scheduled cell.

In an embodiment, when the determined MTRP configuration of thescheduled cell and the scheduling cell both support single-DCI MTRP, andneither an activated TCI codepoint for PDSCH in the scheduled cell noran activated TCI codepoint for PDSCH in the scheduling cell includes twoTCI states, the default TCI comprises: the activated TCI codepoint forPDSCH in the scheduled cell or the activated TCI codepoint for PDSCH inthe scheduling cell that has the lowest identification (ID), a controlresource set (CORESET) having a lowest ID, or a CORESET having a lowestID in a latest PDCCH monitoring slot.

Finally, in block 506, the method 500 decodes a second DL signalreceived via physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) corresponding tothe first DL signal received via PDCCH utilizing the determined defaultTCI.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example architecture of a system 600 of a network,in accordance with various embodiments. The following description isprovided for an example system 600 that operates in conjunction with theLTE system standards and 5G or NR system standards as provided by 3GPPtechnical specifications. However, the example embodiments are notlimited in this regard and the described embodiments may apply to othernetworks that benefit from the principles described herein, such asfuture 3GPP systems (e.g., Sixth Generation (6G)) systems, IEEE 802.16protocols (e.g., WMAN, WiMAX, etc.), or the like.

As shown by FIG. 6 , the system 600 includes UE 622 and UE 620. In thisexample, the UE 622 and the UE 620 are illustrated as smartphones (e.g.,handheld touchscreen mobile computing devices connectable to one or morecellular networks), but may also comprise any mobile or non-mobilecomputing device, such as consumer electronics devices, cellular phones,smartphones, feature phones, tablet computers, wearable computerdevices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), pagers, wireless handsets,desktop computers, laptop computers, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI),in-car entertainment (ICE) devices, an Instrument Cluster (IC), head-updisplay (HUD) devices, onboard diagnostic (OBD) devices, dashtop mobileequipment (DME), mobile data terminals (MDTs), Electronic EngineManagement System (EEMS), electronic/engine control units (ECUs),electronic/engine control modules (ECMs), embedded systems,microcontrollers, control modules, engine management systems (EMS),networked or “smart” appliances, MTC devices, M2M, IoT devices, and/orthe like.

In some embodiments, the UE 622 and/or the UE 620 may be IoT UEs, whichmay comprise a network access layer designed for low power IoTapplications utilizing short-lived UE connections. An IoT UE can utilizetechnologies such as M2M or MTC for exchanging data with an MTC serveror device via a PLMN, ProSe or D2D communication, sensor networks, orIoT networks. The M2M or MTC exchange of data may be a machine-initiatedexchange of data. An IoT network describes interconnecting IoT UEs,which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices(within the Internet infrastructure), with short-lived connections. TheIoT UEs may execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages,status updates, etc.) to facilitate the connections of the IoT network.

The UE 622 and UE 620 may be configured to connect, for example,communicatively couple, with an access node or radio access node (shownas (R)AN 608). In embodiments, the (R)AN 608 may be an NG RAN or a SGRAN, an E-UTRAN, or a legacy RAN, such as a UTRAN or GERAN. As usedherein, the term “NG RAN” or the like may refer to a (R)AN 608 thatoperates in an NR or SG system, and the term “E-UTRAN” or the like mayrefer to a (R)AN 608 that operates in an LTE or 4G system. The UE 622and UE 620 utilize connections (or channels) (shown as connection 604and connection 602, respectively), each of which comprises a physicalcommunications interface or layer (discussed in further detail below).

In this example, the connection 604 and connection 602 are airinterfaces to enable communicative coupling, and can be consistent withcellular communications protocols, such as a GSM protocol, a CDMAnetwork protocol, a PTT protocol, a POC protocol, a UMTS protocol, a3GPP LTE protocol, a SG protocol, a NR protocol, and/or any of the othercommunications protocols discussed herein. In embodiments, the UE 622and UE 620 may directly exchange communication data via a ProSeinterface 610. The ProSe interface 610 may alternatively be referred toas a sidelink (SL) interface and may comprise one or more logicalchannels, including but not limited to a PSCCH, a PSSCH, a PSDCH, and aPSBCH.

The UE 620 is shown to be configured to access an AP 612 (also referredto as “WLAN node,” “WLAN,” “WLAN Termination,” “WT” or the like) viaconnection 624. The connection 624 can comprise a local wirelessconnection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11protocol, wherein the AP 612 would comprise a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi®)router. In this example, the AP 612 may be connected to the Internetwithout connecting to the core network of the wireless system (describedin further detail below). In various embodiments, the UE 620, (R)AN 608,and AP 612 may be configured to utilize LWA operation and/or LWIPoperation. The LWA operation may involve the UE 620 in RRC_CONNECTEDbeing configured by the RAN node 614 or the RAN node 616 to utilizeradio resources of LTE and WLAN. LWIP operation may involve the UE 620using WLAN radio resources (e.g., connection 624) via IPsec protocoltunneling to authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., IP packets) sentover the connection 624. IPsec tunneling may include encapsulating theentirety of original IP packets and adding a new packet header, therebyprotecting the original header of the IP packets.

The (R)AN 608 can include one or more AN nodes, such as RAN node 614 andRAN node 616, that enable the connection 604 and connection 602. As usedherein, the terms “access node,” “access point,” or the like maydescribe equipment that provides the radio baseband functions for dataand/or voice connectivity between a network and one or more users. Theseaccess nodes can be referred to as BS, gNBs, RAN nodes, eNBs, NodeBs,RSUs TRxPs or TRPs, and so forth, and can comprise ground stations(e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stations providingcoverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). As used herein, theterm “NG RAN node” or the like may refer to a RAN node that operates inan NR or SG system (for example, a gNB), and the term “E-UTRAN node” orthe like may refer to a RAN node that operates in an LTE or 4G system600 (e.g., an eNB). According to various embodiments, the RAN node 614or RAN node 616 may be implemented as one or more of a dedicatedphysical device such as a macrocell base station, and/or a low power(LP) base station for providing femtocells, picocells or other likecells having smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higherbandwidth compared to macrocells.

In some embodiments, all or parts of the RAN node 614 or RAN node 616may be implemented as one or more software entities running on servercomputers as part of a virtual network, which may be referred to as aCRAN and/or a virtual baseband unit pool (vBBUP). In these embodiments,the CRAN or vBBUP may implement a RAN function split, such as a PDCPsplit wherein RRC and PDCP layers are operated by the CRAN/vBBUP andother L2 protocol entities are operated by individual RAN nodes (e.g.,RAN node 614 or RAN node 616); a MAC/PHY split wherein RRC, PDCP, RLC,and MAC layers are operated by the CRAN/vBBUP and the PHY layer isoperated by individual RAN nodes (e.g., RAN node 614 or RAN node 616);or a “lower PHY” split wherein RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC layers and upperportions of the PHY layer are operated by the CRAN/vBBUP and lowerportions of the PHY layer are operated by individual RAN nodes. Thisvirtualized framework allows the freed-up processor cores of the RANnode 614 or RAN node 616 to perform other virtualized applications. Insome implementations, an individual RAN node may represent individualgNB-DUs that are connected to a gNB-CU via individual F1 interfaces (notshown by FIG. 6 ). In these implementations, the gNB-DUs may include oneor more remote radio heads or RFEMs, and the gNB-CU may be operated by aserver that is located in the (R)AN 608 (not shown) or by a server poolin a similar manner as the CRAN/vBBUP. Additionally, or alternatively,one or more of the RAN node 614 or RAN node 616 may be next generationeNBs (ng-eNBs), which are RAN nodes that provide E-UTRA user plane andcontrol plane protocol terminations toward the UE 622 and UE 620, andare connected to an SGC via an NG interface (discussed infra). In V2Xscenarios one or more of the RAN node 614 or RAN node 616 may be or actas RSUs.

The term “Road Side Unit” or “RSU” may refer to any transportationinfrastructure entity used for V2X communications. An RSU may beimplemented in or by a suitable RAN node or a stationary (or relativelystationary) UE, where an RSU implemented in or by a UE may be referredto as a “UE-type RSU,” an RSU implemented in or by an eNB may bereferred to as an “eNB-type RSU,” an RSU implemented in or by a gNB maybe referred to as a “gNB-type RSU,” and the like. In one example, an RSUis a computing device coupled with radio frequency circuitry located ona roadside that provides connectivity support to passing vehicle UEs(vUEs). The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry tostore intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, as well asapplications/software to sense and control ongoing vehicular andpedestrian traffic. The RSU may operate on the 5.9 GHz Direct ShortRange Communications (DSRC) band to provide very low latencycommunications required for high speed events, such as crash avoidance,traffic warnings, and the like. Additionally, or alternatively, the RSUmay operate on the cellular V2X band to provide the aforementioned lowlatency communications, as well as other cellular communicationsservices. Additionally, or alternatively, the RSU may operate as a Wi-Fihotspot (2.4 GHz band) and/or provide connectivity to one or morecellular networks to provide uplink and downlink communication. Thecomputing device(s) and some or all of the radio frequency circuitry ofthe RSU may be packaged in a weatherproof enclosure suitable for outdoorinstallation, and may include a network interface controller to providea wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controllerand/or a backhaul network.

The RAN node 614 and/or the RAN node 616 can terminate the air interfaceprotocol and can be the first point of contact for the UE 622 and UE620. In some embodiments, the RAN node 614 and/or the RAN node 616 canfulfill various logical functions for the (R)AN 608 including, but notlimited to, radio network controller (RNC) functions such as radiobearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource managementand data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

In embodiments, the UE 622 and UE 620 can be configured to communicateusing OFDM communication signals with each other or with the RAN node614 and/or the RAN node 616 over a multicarrier communication channel inaccordance with various communication techniques, such as, but notlimited to, an OFDMA communication technique (e.g., for downlinkcommunications) or a SC-FDMA communication technique (e.g., for uplinkand ProSe or sidelink communications), although the scope of theembodiments is not limited in this respect. The OFDM signals cancomprise a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid can be used for downlinktransmissions from the RAN node 614 and/or the RAN node 616 to the UE622 and UE 620, while uplink transmissions can utilize similartechniques. The grid can be a time-frequency grid, called a resourcegrid or time-frequency resource grid, which is the physical resource inthe downlink in each slot. Such a time-frequency plane representation isa common practice for OFDM systems, which makes it intuitive for radioresource allocation. Each column and each row of the resource gridcorresponds to one OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively.The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to oneslot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in a resourcegrid is denoted as a resource element. Each resource grid comprises anumber of resource blocks, which describe the mapping of certainphysical channels to resource elements. Each resource block comprises acollection of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this mayrepresent the smallest quantity of resources that currently can beallocated. There are several different physical downlink channels thatare conveyed using such resource blocks.

According to various embodiments, the UE 622 and UE 620 and the RAN node614 and/or the RAN node 616 communicate data (for example, transmit andreceive) over a licensed medium (also referred to as the “licensedspectrum” and/or the “licensed band”) and an unlicensed shared medium(also referred to as the “unlicensed spectrum” and/or the “unlicensedband”). The licensed spectrum may include channels that operate in thefrequency range of approximately 400 MHz to approximately 3.8 GHz,whereas the unlicensed spectrum may include the 5 GHz band.

To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the UE 622 and UE 620 and the RANnode 614 or RAN node 616 may operate using LAA, eLAA, and/or feLAAmechanisms. In these implementations, the UE 622 and UE 620 and the RANnode 614 or RAN node 616 may perform one or more known medium-sensingoperations and/or carrier-sensing operations in order to determinewhether one or more channels in the unlicensed spectrum is unavailableor otherwise occupied prior to transmitting in the unlicensed spectrum.The medium/carrier sensing operations may be performed according to alisten-before-talk (LBT) protocol.

LBT is a mechanism whereby equipment (for example, UE 622 and UE 620,RAN node 614 or RAN node 616, etc.) senses a medium (for example, achannel or carrier frequency) and transmits when the medium is sensed tobe idle (or when a specific channel in the medium is sensed to beunoccupied). The medium sensing operation may include CCA, whichutilizes at least ED to determine the presence or absence of othersignals on a channel in order to determine if a channel is occupied orclear. This LBT mechanism allows cellular/LAA networks to coexist withincumbent systems in the unlicensed spectrum and with other LAAnetworks. ED may include sensing RF energy across an intendedtransmission band for a period of time and comparing the sensed RFenergy to a predefined or configured threshold.

Typically, the incumbent systems in the 5 GHz band are WLANs based onIEEE 802.11 technologies. WLAN employs a contention-based channel accessmechanism, called CSMA/CA Here, when a WLAN node (e.g., a mobile station(MS) such as UE 622, AP 612, or the like) intends to transmit, the WLANnode may first perform CCA before transmission. Additionally, a backoffmechanism is used to avoid collisions in situations where more than oneWLAN node senses the channel as idle and transmits at the same time. Thebackoff mechanism may be a counter that is drawn randomly within theCWS, which is increased exponentially upon the occurrence of collisionand reset to a minimum value when the transmission succeeds. The LBTmechanism designed for LAA is somewhat similar to the CSMA/CA of WLAN.In some implementations, the LBT procedure for DL or UL transmissionbursts including PDSCH or PUSCH transmissions, respectively, may have anLAA contention window that is variable in length between X and Y ECCAslots, where X and Y are minimum and maximum values for the CWSs forLAA. In one example, the minimum CWS for an LAA transmission may be 9microseconds (μs); however, the size of the CWS and a MCOT (for example,a transmission burst) may be based on governmental regulatoryrequirements.

The LAA mechanisms are built upon CA technologies of LTE-Advancedsystems. In CA, each aggregated carrier is referred to as a CC. A CC mayhave a bandwidth of 1.4, 3, 5, 10, or 20 MHz and a maximum of five CCscan be aggregated, and therefore, a maximum aggregated bandwidth is 100MHz. In FDD systems, the number of aggregated carriers can be differentfor DL and UL, where the number of UL CCs is equal to or lower than thenumber of DL component carriers. In some cases, individual CCs can havea different bandwidth than other CCs. In TDD systems, the number of CCsas well as the bandwidths of each CC is usually the same for DL and UL.

CA also comprises individual serving cells to provide individual CCs.The coverage of the serving cells may differ, for example, because CCson different frequency bands will experience different pathloss. Aprimary service cell or PCell may provide a PCC for both UL and DL, andmay handle RRC and NAS related activities. The other serving cells arereferred to as SCells, and each SCell may provide an individual SCC forboth UL and DL. The SCCs may be added and removed as required, whilechanging the PCC may require the UE 622 to undergo a handover. In LAA,eLAA, and feLAA, some or all of the SCells may operate in the unlicensedspectrum (referred to as “LAA SCells”), and the LAA SCells are assistedby a PCell operating in the licensed spectrum. When a UE is configuredwith more than one LAA SCell, the UE may receive UL grants on theconfigured LAA SCells indicating different PUSCH starting positionswithin a same subframe.

The PDSCH carries user data and higher-layer signaling to the UE 622 andUE 620. The PDCCH carries information about the transport format andresource allocations related to the PDSCH channel, among other things.It may also inform the UE 622 and UE 620 about the transport format,resource allocation, and HARQ information related to the uplink sharedchannel. Typically, downlink scheduling (assigning control and sharedchannel resource blocks to the UE 620 within a cell) may be performed atany of the RAN node 614 or RAN node 616 based on channel qualityinformation fed back from any of the UE 622 and UE 620. The downlinkresource assignment information may be sent on the PDCCH used for (e.g.,assigned to) each of the UE 622 and UE 620.

The PDCCH uses CCEs to convey the control information. Before beingmapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols may firstbe organized into quadruplets, which may then be permuted using asub-block interleaver for rate matching. Each PDCCH may be transmittedusing one or more of these CCEs, where each CCE may correspond to ninesets of four physical resource elements known as REGs. Four QuadraturePhase Shift Keying (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. The PDCCHcan be transmitted using one or more CCEs, depending on the size of theDCI and the channel condition. There can be four or more different PDCCHformats defined in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregationlevel, L=1, 2, 4, or 8).

Some embodiments may use concepts for resource allocation for controlchannel information that are an extension of the above-describedconcepts. For example, some embodiments may utilize an EPDCCH that usesPDSCH resources for control information transmission. The EPDCCH may betransmitted using one or more ECCEs. Similar to above, each ECCE maycorrespond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as anEREGs. An ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs in some situations.

The RAN node 614 or RAN node 616 may be configured to communicate withone another via interface 630. In embodiments where the system 600 is anLTE system (e.g., when CN 606 is an EPC), the interface 630 may be an X2interface. The X2 interface may be defined between two or more RAN nodes(e.g., two or more eNBs and the like) that connect to an EPC, and/orbetween two eNBs connecting to the EPC. In some implementations, the X2interface may include an X2 user plane interface (X2-U) and an X2control plane interface (X2-C). The X2-U may provide flow controlmechanisms for user data packets transferred over the X2 interface, andmay be used to communicate information about the delivery of user databetween eNBs. For example, the X2-U may provide specific sequence numberinformation for user data transferred from a MeNB to an SeNB;information about successful in sequence delivery of PDCP PDUs to a UE622 from an SeNB for user data; information of PDCP PDUs that were notdelivered to a UE 622; information about a current minimum desiredbuffer size at the Se NB for transmitting to the UE user data; and thelike. The X2-C may provide intra-LTE access mobility functionality,including context transfers from source to target eNBs, user planetransport control, etc.; load management functionality; as well asinter-cell interference coordination functionality.

In embodiments where the system 600 is a SG or NR system (e.g., when CN606 is an SGC), the interface 630 may be an Xn interface. The Xninterface is defined between two or more RAN nodes (e.g., two or moregNBs and the like) that connect to SGC, between a RAN node 614 (e.g., agNB) connecting to SGC and an eNB, and/or between two eNBs connecting to5GC (e.g., CN 606). In some implementations, the Xn interface mayinclude an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface and an Xn control plane (Xn-C)interface. The Xn-U may provide non-guaranteed delivery of user planePDUs and support/provide data forwarding and flow control functionality.The Xn-C may provide management and error handling functionality,functionality to manage the Xn-C interface; mobility support for UE 622in a connected mode (e.g., CM-CONNECTED) including functionality tomanage the UE mobility for connected mode between one or more RAN node614 or RAN node 616. The mobility support may include context transferfrom an old (source) serving RAN node 614 to new (target) serving RANnode 616; and control of user plane tunnels between old (source) servingRAN node 614 to new (target) serving RAN node 616. A protocol stack ofthe Xn-U may include a transport network layer built on InternetProtocol (IP) transport layer, and a GTP-U layer on top of a UDP and/orIP layer(s) to carry user plane PDUs. The Xn-C protocol stack mayinclude an application layer signaling protocol (referred to as XnApplication Protocol (Xn-AP)) and a transport network layer that isbuilt on SCTP. The SCTP may be on top of an IP layer, and may providethe guaranteed delivery of application layer messages. In the transportIP layer, point-to-point transmission is used to deliver the signalingPDUs. In other implementations, the Xn-U protocol stack and/or the Xn-Cprotocol stack may be same or similar to the user plane and/or controlplane protocol stack(s) shown and described herein.

The (R)AN 608 is shown to be communicatively coupled to a corenetwork-in this embodiment, CN 606. The CN 606 may comprise one or morenetwork elements 632, which are configured to offer various data andtelecommunications services to customers/subscribers (e.g., users of UE622 and UE 620) who are connected to the CN 606 via the (R)AN 608. Thecomponents of the CN 606 may be implemented in one physical node orseparate physical nodes including components to read and executeinstructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g.,a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some embodiments,NFV may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the above-describednetwork node functions via executable instructions stored in one or morecomputer-readable storage mediums (described in further detail below). Alogical instantiation of the CN 606 may be referred to as a networkslice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of the CN 606 may bereferred to as a network sub-slice. NFV architectures andinfrastructures may be used to virtualize one or more network functions,alternatively performed by proprietary hardware, onto physical resourcescomprising a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storagehardware, or switches. In other words, NFV systems can be used toexecute virtual or reconfigurable implementations of one or more EPCcomponents/functions.

Generally, an application server 618 may be an element offeringapplications that use IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g.,UMTS PS domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). The application server 618can also be configured to support one or more communication services(e.g., VoIP sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, socialnetworking services, etc.) for the UE 622 and UE 620 via the EPC. Theapplication server 618 may communicate with the CN 606 through an IPcommunications interface 636.

In embodiments, the CN 606 may be an SGC, and the (R)AN 116 may beconnected with the CN 606 via an NG interface 634. In embodiments, theNG interface 634 may be split into two parts, an NG user plane (NG-U)interface 626, which carries traffic data between the RAN node 614 orRAN node 616 and a UPF, and the S1 control plane (NG-C) interface 628,which is a signaling interface between the RAN node 614 or RAN node 616and AMFs.

In embodiments, the CN 606 may be a SG CN, while in other embodiments,the CN 606 may be an EPC). Where CN 606 is an EPC, the (R)AN 116 may beconnected with the CN 606 via an S1 interface 634. In embodiments, theS1 interface 634 may be split into two parts, an S1 user plane (S1-U)interface 626, which carries traffic data between the RAN node 614 orRAN node 616 and the S-GW, and the S1-MME interface 628, which is asignaling interface between the RAN node 614 or RAN node 616 and MMEs.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of infrastructure equipment 700 inaccordance with various embodiments. The infrastructure equipment 700may be implemented as a base station, radio head, RAN node, AN,application server, and/or any other element/device discussed herein. Inother examples, the infrastructure equipment 700 could be implemented inor by a UE.

The infrastructure equipment 700 includes application circuitry 702,baseband circuitry 704, one or more radio front end module 706 (RFEM),memory circuitry 708, power management integrated circuitry (shown asPMIC 710), power tee circuitry 712, net work controller circuitry 714,network interface connector 720, satellite positioning circuitry 716,and user interface circuitry 718. In some embodiments, the deviceinfrastructure equipment 700 may include additional elements such as,for example, memory/storage, display, camera, sensor, or input/output(I/O) interface. In other embodiments, the components described belowmay be included in more than one device. For example, said circuitriesmay be separately included in more than one device for CRAN, vBB U, orother like implementations. Application circuitry 702 includes circuitrysuch as, but not limited to one or more processors (or processor cores),cache memory, and one or more of low drop-out voltage regulators (LDOs),interrupt controllers, serial interfaces such as SPI, I²C or universalprogrammable serial interface module, real time clock (RTC),timer-counters including interval and watchdog timers, general purposeinput/output (I/O or IO), memory card controllers such as Secure Digital(SD) MultiMediaCard (MMC) or similar, Universal Serial Bus (USB)interfaces, Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) interfaces andJoint Test Access Group (JTAG) test access ports. The processors (orcores) of the application circuitry 702 may be coupled with or mayinclude memory/storage elements and may be configured to executeinstructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applicationsor operating systems to run on the infrastructure equipment 700. In someimplementations, the memory/storage elements may be on-chip memorycircuitry, which may include any suitable volatile and/or non-volatilememory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, Flash memory, solid-statememory, and/or any other type of memory device technology, such as thosediscussed herein.

The processor(s) of application circuitry 702 may include, for example,one or more processor cores (CPUs), one or more application processors,one or more graphics processing units (GPUs), one or more reducedinstruction set computing (RISC) processors, one or more Acorn RISCMachine (ARM) processors, one or more complex instruction set computing(CISC) processors, one or more digital signal processors (DSP), one ormore FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or moremicroprocessors or controllers, or any suitable combination thereof. Insome embodiments, the application circuitry 702 may comprise, or may be,a special-purpose processor/controller to operate according to thevarious embodiments herein. As examples, the processor(s) of applicationcircuitry 702 may include one or more Intel Pentium®, Core®, or Xeon®processor(s); Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Ryzen® processor(s),Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), or Epyc® processors; ARM-basedprocessor(s) licensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd. such as the ARM Cortex-Afamily of processors and the ThunderX2® provided by Cavium™, Inc.; aMIPS-based design from MIPS Technologies, Inc. such as MIPS WarriorP-class processors; and/or the like. In some embodiments, theinfrastructure equipment 700 may not utilize application circuitry 702,and instead may include a special-purpose processor/controller toprocess IP data received from an EPC or 5GC, for example.

In some implementations, the application circuitry 702 may include oneor more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors,programmable processing devices, or the like. The one or more hardwareaccelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) and/or deeplearning (DL) accelerators. As examples, the programmable processingdevices may be one or more a field-programmable devices (FPDs) such asfield-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and the like; programmable logicdevices (PLDs) such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs(HCPLDs), and the like; ASICs such as structured ASICs and the like;programmable SoCs (PSoCs); and the like. In such implementations, thecircuitry of application circuitry 702 may comprise logic blocks orlogic fabric, and other interconnected resources that may be programmedto perform various functions, such as the procedures, methods,functions, etc. of the various embodiments discussed herein. In suchembodiments, the circuitry of application circuitry 702 may includememory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM),electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flashmemory, static memory (e.g., static random access memory (SRAM),anti-fuses, etc.)) used to store logic blocks, logic fabric, data, etc.in look-up-tables (LUTs) and the like. The baseband circuitry 704 may beimplemented, for example, as a solder-down substrate including one ormore integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit solderedto a main circuit board or a multi-chip module containing two or moreintegrated circuits.

The user interface circuitry 718 may include one or more user interfacesdesigned to enable user interaction with the infrastructure equipment700 or peripheral component interfaces designed to enable peripheralcomponent interaction with the infrastructure equipment 700. Userinterfaces may include, but are not limited to, one or more physical orvirtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), one or more indicators (e.g.,light emitting diodes (LEDs)), a physical keyboard or keypad, a mouse, atouchpad, a touchscreen, speakers or other audio emitting devices,microphones, a printer, a scanner, a headset, a display screen ordisplay device, etc. Peripheral component interfaces may include, butare not limited to, a nonvolatile memory port, a universal serial bus(USB) port, an audio jack, a power supply interface, etc.

The radio front end module 706 may comprise a millimeter wave (mmWave)radio front end module (RFEM) and one or more sub-mmWave radio frequencyintegrated circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, the one or moresub-mmWave RFICs may be physically separated from the mmWave RFEM. TheRFICs may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays,and the RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. In alternativeimplementations, both mmWave and sub-mmWave radio functions may beimplemented in the same physical radio front end module 706, whichincorporates both mmWave antennas and sub-mmWave.

The memory circuitry 708 may include one or more of volatile memoryincluding dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and/or synchronous dynamicrandom access memory (SDRAM), and nonvolatile memory (NVM) includinghigh-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as Flashmemory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistiverandom access memory (MRAM), etc., and may incorporate thethree-dimensional (3D) cross-point (XPOINT) memories from Intel® andMicron®. The memory circuitry 708 may be implemented as one or more ofsolder down packaged integrated circuits, socketed memory modules andplug-in memory cards.

The PMIC 710 may include voltage regulators, surge protectors, poweralarm detection circuitry, and one or more backup power sources such asa battery or capacitor. The power alarm detection circuitry may detectone or more of brown out (under-voltage) and surge (over-voltage)conditions. The power tee circuitry 712 may provide for electrical powerdrawn from a network cable to provide both power supply and dataconnectivity to the infrastructure equipment 700 using a single cable.

The network controller circuitry 714 may provide connectivity to anetwork using a standard network interface protocol such as Ethernet,Ethernet over GRE Tunnels, Ethernet over Multiprotocol Label Switching(MPLS), or some other suitable protocol. Network connectivity may beprovided to/from the infrastructure equipment 700 via network interfaceconnector 720 using a physical connection, which may be electrical(commonly referred to as a “copper interconnect”), optical, or wireless.The network controller circuitry 714 may include one or more dedicatedprocessors and/or FPGAs to communicate using one or more of theaforementioned protocols. In some implementations, the networkcontroller circuitry 714 may include multiple controllers to provideconnectivity to other networks using the same or different protocols.

The positioning circuitry 716 includes circuitry to receive and decodesignals transmitted/broadcasted by a positioning network of a globalnavigation satellite system (GNSS). Examples of navigation satelliteconstellations (or GNSS) include United States' Global PositioningSystem (GPS), Russia's Global Navigation System (GLONASS), the EuropeanUnion's Galileo System, China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, aregional navigation system or GNSS augmentation system (e.g., Navigationwith Indian Constellation (NAVIC), Japan's Quasi-Zenith Satellite System(QZSS), France's Doppler Orbitography and Radio-positioning Integratedby Satellite (DORIS), etc.), or the like. The positioning circuitry 716comprises various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devicessuch as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, and the like tofacilitate OTA communications) to communicate with components of apositioning network, such as navigation satellite constellation nodes.In some embodiments, the positioning circuitry 716 may include aMicro-Technology for Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (Micro-PNT) ICthat uses a master timing clock to perform position tracking/estimationwithout GNSS assistance. The positioning circuitry 716 may also be partof, or interact with, the baseband circuitry 704 and/or radio front endmodule 706 to communicate with the nodes and components of thepositioning network. The positioning circuitry 716 may also provideposition data and/or time data to the application circuitry 702, whichmay use the data to synchronize operations with various infrastructure,or the like. The components shown by FIG. 7 may communicate with oneanother using interface circuitry, which may include any number of busand/or interconnect (IX) technologies such as industry standardarchitecture (ISA), extended ISA (EISA), peripheral componentinterconnect (PCI), peripheral component interconnect extended (PCix),PCI express (PCie), or any number of other technologies. The bus/IX maybe a proprietary bus, for example, used in a SoC based system. Otherbus/IX systems may be included, such as an I²C interface, an SPIinterface, point to point interfaces, and a power bus, among others.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a platform 800 in accordance withvarious embodiments. In embodiments, the computer platform 800 may besuitable for use as UEs, application servers, and/or any otherelement/device discussed herein. The platform 800 may include anycombinations of the components shown in the example. The components ofplatform 800 may be implemented as integrated circuits (ICs), portionsthereof, discrete electronic devices, or other modules, logic, hardware,software, firmware, or a combination thereof adapted in the computerplatform 800, or as components otherwise incorporated within a chassisof a larger system. The block diagram of FIG. 8 is intended to show ahigh level view of components of the computer platform 800. However,some of the components shown may be omitted, additional components maybe present, and different arrangement of the components shown may occurin other implementations.

Application circuitry 802 includes circuitry such as, but not limited toone or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and one ormore of LDOs, interrupt controllers, serial interfaces such as SPI, I²Cor universal programmable serial interface module, RTC, timer-countersincluding interval and watchdog timers, general purpose 10, memory cardcontrollers such as SD MMC or similar, USB interfaces, MIPI interfaces,and JTAG test access ports. The processors (or cores) of the applicationcircuitry 802 may be coupled with or may include memory/storage elementsand may be configured to execute instructions stored in thememory/storage to enable various applications or operating systems torun on the platform 800. In some implementations, the memory/storageelements may be on-chip memory circuitry, which may include any suitablevolatile and/or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM,Flash memory, solid-state memory, and/or any other type of memory devicetechnology, such as those discussed herein.

The processor(s) of application circuitry 802 may include, for example,one or more processor cores, one or more application processors, one ormore GPUs, one or more RISC processors, one or more ARM processors, oneor more CISC processors, one or more DSP, one or more FPGAs, one or morePLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, amultithreaded processor, an ultra-low voltage processor, an embeddedprocessor, some other known processing element, or any suitablecombination thereof. In some embodiments, the application circuitry 802may comprise, or may be, a special-purpose processor/controller tooperate according to the various embodiments herein.

As examples, the processor(s) of application circuitry 802 may includean Intel® Architecture Core™ based processor, such as a Quark™, anAtom™, an i3, an i5, an i7, or an MCU-class processor, or another suchprocessor available from Intel® Corporation. The processors of theapplication circuitry 802 may also be one or more of Advanced MicroDevices (AMD) Ryzen® processor(s) or Accelerated Processing Units(APUs); AS-A9 processor(s) from Apple® Inc., Snapdragon™ processor(s)from Qualcomm® Technologies, Inc., Texas Instruments, Inc.® OpenMultimedia Applications Platform (OMAP)™ processor(s); a MIPS-baseddesign from MIPS Technologies, Inc. such as MIPS Warrior M-class,Warrior I-class, and Warrior P-class processors; an ARM-based designlicensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd., such as the ARM Cortex-A, Cortex-R,and Cortex-M family of processors; or the like. In some implementations,the application circuitry 802 may be a part of a system on a chip (SoC)in which the application circuitry 802 and other components are formedinto a single integrated circuit, or a single package, such as theEdison™ or Galileo™ SoC boards from Intel® Corporation.

Additionally or alternatively, application circuitry 802 may includecircuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more a field-programmabledevices (FPDs) such as FPGAs and the like; programmable logic devices(PLDs) such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), andthe like; ASICs such as structured ASICs and the like; programmable SoCs(PSoCs); and the like. In such embodiments, the circuitry of applicationcircuitry 802 may comprise logic blocks or logic fabric, and otherinterconnected resources that may be programmed to perform variousfunctions, such as the procedures, methods, functions, etc. of thevarious embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuitryof application circuitry 802 may include memory cells (e.g., erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory(e.g., static random access memory (SRAM), anti-fuses, etc.)) used tostore logic blocks, logic fabric, data, etc. in look-up tables (LUTs)and the like.

The baseband circuitry 804 may be implemented, for example, as asolder-down substrate including one or more integrated circuits, asingle packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board or amulti-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits.

The radio front end module 806 may comprise a millimeter wave (mmWave)radio front end module (RFEM) and one or more sub-mmWave radio frequencyintegrated circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, the one or moresub-mmWave RFICs may be physically separated from the mmWave RFEM. TheRFICs may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays,and the RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. In alternativeimplementations, both mmWave and sub-mmWave radio functions may beimplemented in the same physical radio front end module 806, whichincorporates both mmWave antennas and sub-mmWave.

The memory circuitry 808 may include any number and type of memorydevices used to provide for a given amount of system memory. Asexamples, the memory circuitry 808 may include one or more of volatilememory including random access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM) and/orsynchronous dynamic RAM (SD RAM), and nonvolatile memory (NVM) includinghigh-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as Flashmemory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistiverandom access memory (MRAM), etc. The memory circuitry 808 may bedeveloped in accordance with a Joint Electron Devices EngineeringCouncil (JEDEC) low power double data rate (LPDDR)-based design, such asLPDDR2, LPDDR3, LPDDR4, or the like. Memory circuitry 808 may beimplemented as one or more of solder down packaged integrated circuits,single die package (SDP), dual die package (DDP) or quad die package(Q17P), socketed memory modules, dual inline memory modules (DIMMs)including microDIMMs or MiniDIMMs, and/or soldered onto a motherboardvia a ball grid array (BGA). In low power implementations, the memorycircuitry 808 maybe on-die memory or registers associated with theapplication circuitry 802. To provide for persistent storage ofinformation such as data, applications, operating systems and so forth,memory circuitry 808 may include one or more mass storage devices, whichmay include, inter alia, a solid state disk drive (SSDD), hard diskdrive (HDD), a microHDD, resistance change memories, phase changememories, holographic memories, or chemical memories, among others. Forexample, the computer platform 800 may incorporate the three-dimensional(3D) cross-point (XPOINT) memories from Intel® and Micron®.

The removable memory 826 may include devices, circuitry,enclosures/housings, ports or receptacles, etc. used to couple portabledata storage devices with the platform 800. These portable data storagedevices may be used for mass storage purposes, and may include, forexample, flash memory cards (e.g., Secure Digital (SD) cards, microSDcards, xD picture cards, and the like), and USB flash drives, opticaldiscs, external HDDs, and the like.

The platform 800 may also include interface circuitry (not shown) thatis used to connect external devices with the platform 800. The externaldevices connected to the platform 800 via the interface circuitryinclude sensors 822 and electro-mechanical components (shown as EMCs824), as well as removable memory devices coupled to removable memory826.

The sensors 822 include devices, modules, or subsystems whose purpose isto detect events or changes in its environment and send the information(sensor data) about the detected events to some other a device, module,subsystem, etc. Examples of such sensors include, inter alia, inertiameasurement units (IMUs) comprising accelerometers, gyroscopes, and/ormagnetometers; microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) ornanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) comprising 3-axis accelerometers,3-axis gyroscopes, and/or magnetometers; level sensors; flow sensors;temperature sensors (e.g., thermistors); pressure sensors; barometricpressure sensors; gravimeters; altimeters; image capture devices (e.g.,cameras or lensless apertures); light detection and ranging (LiDAR)sensors; proximity sensors (e.g., infrared radiation detector and thelike), depth sensors, ambient light sensors, ultrasonic transceivers;microphones or other like audio capture devices; etc.

EMCs 824 include devices, modules, or subsystems whose purpose is toenable platform 800 to change its state, position, and/or orientation,or move or control a mechanism or (sub)system. Additionally, EMCs 824may be configured to generate and send messages/signaling to othercomponents of the platform 800 to indicate a current state of the EMCs824. Examples of the EMCs 824 include one or more power switches, relaysincluding electromechanical relays (EMRs) and/or solid state relays(SSRs), actuators (e.g., valve actuators, etc.), an audible soundgenerator, a visual warning device, motors (e.g., DC motors, steppermotors, etc.), wheels, thrusters, propellers, claws, clamps, hooks,and/or other like electro-mechanical components. In embodiments,platform 800 is configured to operate one or more EMCs 824 based on oneor more captured events and/or instructions or control signals receivedfrom a service provider and/or various clients. In some implementations,the interface circuitry may connect the platform 800 with positioningcircuitry 816. The positioning circuitry 816 includes circuitry toreceive and decode signals transmitted/broadcasted by a positioningnetwork of a GNSS. Examples of navigation satellite constellations (orGNSS) include United States' GPS, Russia's GLONASS, the European Union'sGalileo system, China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, a regionalnavigation system or GNSS augmentation system (e.g., NAVIC), Japan'sQZSS, France's DORIS, etc.), or the like. The positioning circuitry 816comprises various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devicessuch as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, and the like tofacilitate OTA communications) to communicate with components of apositioning network, such as navigation satellite constellation nodes.In some embodiments, the positioning circuitry 816 may include aMicro-PNT IC that uses a master timing clock to perform positiontracking/estimation without GNSS assistance. The positioning circuitry816 may also be part of, or interact with, the baseband circuitry 804and/or radio front end module 806 to communicate with the nodes andcomponents of the positioning network. The positioning circuitry 816 mayalso provide position data and/or time data to the application circuitry802, which may use the data to synchronize operations with variousinfrastructure (e.g., radio base stations), for turn-by-turn navigationapplications, or the like.

In some implementations, the interface circuitry may connect theplatform 800 with Near-Field Communication circuitry (shown as NFCcircuitry 812). The NFC circuitry 812 is configured to providecontactless, short-range communications based on radio frequencyidentification (RFID) standards, wherein magnetic field induction isused to enable communication between NFC circuitry 812 and NFC-enableddevices external to the platform 800 (e.g., an “NFC touchpoint”). NFCcircuitry 812 comprises an NFC controller coupled with an antennaelement and a processor coupled with the NFC controller. The NFCcontroller may be a chip/IC providing NFC functionalities to the NFCcircuitry 812 by executing NFC controller firmware and an NFC stack TheNFC stack may be executed by the processor to control the NFCcontroller, and the NFC controller firmware may be executed by the NFCcontroller to control the antenna element to emit short-range RFsignals. The RF signals may power a passive NFC tag (e.g., a microchipembedded in a sticker or wristband) to transmit stored data to the NFCcircuitry 812, or initiate data transfer between the NFC circuitry 812and another active NFC device (e.g., a smartphone or an NFC-enabled POSterminal) that is proximate to the platform 800.

The driver circuitry 818 may include software and hardware elements thatoperate to control particular devices that are embedded in the platform800, attached to the platform 800, or otherwise communicatively coupledwith the platform 800. The driver circuitry 818 may include individualdrivers allowing other components of the platform 800 to interact withor control various input/output (I/O) devices that may be presentwithin, or connected to, the platform 800. For example, driver circuitry818 may include a display driver to control and allow access to adisplay device, a touchscreen driver to control and allow access to atouchscreen interface of the platform 800, sensor drivers to obtainsensor readings of sensors 822 and control and allow access to sensors822, EMC drivers to obtain actuator positions of the EMCs 824 and/orcontrol and allow access to the EMCs 824, a camera driver to control andallow access to an embedded image capture device, audio drivers tocontrol and allow access to one or more audio devices.

The power management integrated circuitry (shown as PMIC 810) (alsoreferred to as “power management circuitry”) may manage power providedto various components of the platform 800. In particular, with respectto the baseband circuitry 804, the PMIC 810 may control power-sourceselection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-to-DC conversion.The PMIC 810 may often be included when the platform 800 is capable ofbeing powered by a battery 814, for example, when the device is includedin a UE.

In some embodiments, the PMIC 810 may control, or otherwise be part of,various power saving mechanisms of the platform 800. For example, if theplatform 800 is in an RRC_Connected state, where it is still connectedto the RAN node as it expects to receive traffic shortly, then it mayenter a state known as Discontinuous Reception Mode (DRX) after a periodof inactivity. During this state, the platform 800 may power down forbrief intervals of time and thus save power. If there is no data trafficactivity for an extended period of time, then the platform 800 maytransition off to an RRC_Idle state, where it disconnects from thenetwork and does not perform operations such as channel qualityfeedback, handover, etc. The platform 800 goes into a very low powerstate and it performs paging where again it periodically wakes up tolisten to the network and then powers down again. The platform 800 maynot receive data in this state; in order to receive data, it musttransition back to RRC_Connected state. An additional power saving modemay allow a device to be unavailable to the network for periods longerthan a paging interval (ranging from seconds to a few hours). Duringthis time, the device is totally unreachable to the network and maypower down completely. Any data sent during this time incurs a largedelay and it is assumed the delay is acceptable.

A battery 814 may power the platform 800, although in some examples theplatform 800 may be mounted deployed in a fixed location, and may have apower supply coupled to an electrical grid. The battery 814 may be alithium ion battery, a metal-air battery, such as a zinc-air battery, analuminum-air battery, a lithium-air battery, and the like. In someimplementations, such as in V2X applications, the battery 814 may be atypical lead-acid automotive battery.

In some implementations, the battery 814 may be a “smart battery,” whichincludes or is coupled with a Battery Management System (BMS) or batterymonitoring integrated circuitry. The BMS may be included in the platform800 to track the state of charge (SoCh) of the battery 814. The BMS maybe used to monitor other parameters of the battery 814 to providefailure predictions, such as the state of health (SoH) and the state offunction (SoF) of the battery 814. The BMS may communicate theinformation of the battery 814 to the application circuitry 802 or othercomponents of the platform 800. The BMS may also include ananalog-to-digital (ADC) convertor that allows the application circuitry802 to directly monitor the voltage of the battery 814 or the currentflow from the battery 814. The battery parameters may be used todetermine actions that the platform 800 may perform, such astransmission frequency, network operation, sensing frequency, and thelike.

A power block, or other power supply coupled to an electrical grid maybe coupled with the BMS to charge the battery 814. In some examples, thepower block may be replaced with a wireless power receiver to obtain thepower wirelessly, for example, through a loop antenna in the computerplatform 800. In these examples, a wireless battery charging circuit maybe included in the BMS. The specific charging circuits chosen may dependon the size of the battery 814, and thus, the current required. Thecharging may be performed using the Airfuel standard promulgated by theAirfuel Alliance, the Qi wireless charging standard promulgated by theWireless Power Consortium, or the Rezence charging standard promulgatedby the Alliance for Wireless Power, among others.

User interface circuitry 820 includes various input/output (I/O) devicespresent within, or connected to, the platform 800, and includes one ormore user interfaces designed to enable user interaction with theplatform 800 and/or peripheral component interfaces designed to enableperipheral component interaction with the platform 800. The userinterface circuitry 820 includes input device circuitry and outputdevice circuitry. Input device circuitry includes any physical orvirtual means for accepting an input including, inter alia, one or morephysical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), a physical keyboard,keypad, mouse, touchpad, touchscreen, microphones, scanner, headset,and/or the like. The output device circuitry includes any physical orvirtual means for showing information or otherwise conveyinginformation, such as sensor readings, actuator position(s), or otherlike information. Output device circuitry may include any number and/orcombinations of audio or visual display, including, inter alia, one ormore simple visual outputs/indicators such as binary status indicators(e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)) and multi-character visual outputs,or more complex outputs such as display devices or touchscreens (e.g.,Liquid Chrystal Displays (LCD), LED displays, quantum dot displays,projectors, etc.), with the output of characters, graphics, multimediaobjects, and the like being generated or produced from the operation ofthe platform 800. The output device circuitry may also include speakersor other audio emitting devices, printer(s), and/or the like. In someembodiments, the sensors 822 may be used as the input device circuitry(e.g., an image capture device, motion capture device, or the like) andone or more EMCs may be used as the output device circuitry (e.g., anactuator to provide haptic feedback or the like). In another example,NFC circuitry comprising an NFC controller coupled with an antennaelement and a processing device may be included to read electronic tagsand/or connect with another NFC-enabled device. Peripheral componentinterfaces may include, but are not limited to, a non-volatile memoryport, a USB port, an audio jack, a power supply interface, etc.

Although not shown, the components of platform 800 may communicate withone another using a suitable bus or interconnect (IX) technology, whichmay include any number of technologies, including ISA, EISA, PCI, PCix,PCie, a Time-Trigger Protocol (TTP) system, a FlexRay system, or anynumber of other technologies. The bus/IX may be a proprietary bus/IX,for example, used in a SoC based system. Other bus/IX systems may beincluded, such as an I²C interface, an SPI interface, point-to-pointinterfaces, and a power bus, among others.

FIG. 9 illustrates example components of a device 900 in accordance withsome embodiments. In some embodiments, the device 900 may includeapplication circuitry 906, baseband circuitry 904, Radio Frequency (RF)circuitry (shown as RF circuitry 902), front-end module (FEM) circuitry(shown as FEM circuitry 932), one or more antennas 930, and powermanagement circuitry (PMC) (shown as PMC 934) coupled together at leastas shown. The components of the illustrated device 900 may be includedin a UE or a RAN node. In some embodiments, the device 900 may includefewer elements (e.g., a RAN node may not utilize application circuitry906, and instead include a processor/controller to process IP datareceived from an EPC). In some embodiments, the device 900 may includeadditional elements such as, for example, memory/storage, display,camera, sensor, or input/output (I/O) interface. In other embodiments,the components described below may be included in more than one device(e.g., said circuitries may be separately included in more than onedevice for Cloud-RAN (C-RAN) implementations).

The application circuitry 906 may include one or more applicationprocessors. For example, the application circuitry 906 may includecircuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core ormulti-core processors. The processor(s) may include any combination ofgeneral-purpose processors and dedicated processors (e.g., graphicsprocessors, application processors, etc.). The processors may be coupledwith or may include memory/storage and may be configured to executeinstructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applicationsor operating systems to run on the device 900. In some embodiments,processors of application circuitry 906 may process IP data packetsreceived from an EPC.

The baseband circuitry 904 may include circuitry such as, but notlimited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. Thebaseband circuitry 904 may include one or more baseband processors orcontrol logic to process baseband signals received from a receive signalpath of the RF circuitry 902 and to generate baseband signals for atransmit signal path of the RF circuitry 902. The baseband circuitry 904may interface with the application circuitry 906 for generation andprocessing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of theRF circuitry 902. For example, in some embodiments, the basebandcircuitry 904 may include a third generation (3G) baseband processor (3Gbaseband processor 908), a fourth generation (4G) baseband processor (4Gbaseband processor 910), a fifth generation (5G) baseband processor (5Gbaseband processor 912), or other baseband processor(s) 914 for otherexisting generations, generations in development or to be developed inthe future (e.g., second generation (2G), sixth generation (6G), etc.).The baseband circuitry 904 (e.g., one or more of baseband processors)may handle various radio control functions that enable communicationwith one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 902. In otherembodiments, some or all of the functionality of the illustratedbaseband processors may be included in modules stored in the memory 920and executed via a Central Processing Unit (CPU 916). The radio controlfunctions may include, but are not limited to, signalmodulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting,etc. In some embodiments, modulation/demodulation circuitry of thebaseband circuitry 904 may include Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT),precoding, or constellation mapping/demapping functionality. In someembodiments, encoding/decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry 904may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, or LowDensity Parity Check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functionality. Embodimentsof modulation/demodulation and encoder/decoder functionality are notlimited to these examples and may include other suitable functionalityin other embodiments.

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 904 may include a digitalsignal processor (DSP), such as one or more audio DSP(s) 918. The one ormore audio DSP(s) 918 may include elements for compression/decompressionand echo cancellation and may include other suitable processing elementsin other embodiments. Components of the baseband circuitry may besuitably combined in a single chip, a single chipset, or disposed on asame circuit board in some embodiments. In some embodiments, some or allof the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 904 and theapplication circuitry 906 may be implemented together such as, forexample, on a system on a chip (SOC).

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 904 may provide forcommunication compatible with one or more radio technologies. Forexample, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 904 may supportcommunication with an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network(EUTRAN) or other wireless metropolitan area networks (WMAN), a wirelesslocal area network (WLAN), or a wireless personal area network (WPAN).Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry 904 is configured to supportradio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referredto as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

The RF circuitry 902 may enable communication with wireless networksusing modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. Invarious embodiments, the RF circuitry 902 may include switches, filters,amplifiers, etc. to facilitate the communication with the wirelessnetwork. The RF circuitry 902 may include a receive signal path whichmay include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from the FEMcircuitry 932 and provide baseband signals to the baseband circuitry904. The RF circuitry 902 may also include a transmit signal path whichmay include circuitry to up-convert baseband signals provided by thebaseband circuitry 904 and provide RF output signals to the FEMcircuitry 932 for transmission.

In some embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 902 mayinclude mixer circuitry 922, amplifier circuitry 924 and filtercircuitry 926. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RFcircuitry 902 may include filter circuitry 926 and mixer circuitry 922.The RF circuitry 902 may also include synthesizer circuitry 928 forsynthesizing a frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 922 of thereceive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments,the mixer circuitry 922 of the receive signal path may be configured todown-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 932 based on thesynthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 928. Theamplifier circuitry 924 may be configured to amplify the down-convertedsignals and the filter circuitry 926 may be a low-pass filter (LPF) orband-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from thedown-converted signals to generate output baseband signals. Outputbaseband signals may be provided to the baseband circuitry 904 forfurther processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signals maybe zero-frequency baseband signals, although this is not a requirement.In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 922 of the receive signal pathmay comprise passive mixers, although the scope of the embodiments isnot limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 922 of the transmit signal pathmay be configured to up-convert input baseband signals based on thesynthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 928 togenerate RF output signals for the FEM circuitry 932. The basebandsignals may be provided by the baseband circuitry 904 and may befiltered by the filter circuitry 926.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 922 of the receive signal pathand the mixer circuitry 922 of the transmit signal path may include twoor more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature downconversion andupconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 922of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 922 of the transmitsignal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for imagerejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, themixer circuitry 922 of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry922 may be arranged for direct downconversion and direct upconversion,respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 922 of thereceive signal path and the mixer circuitry 922 of the transmit signalpath may be configured for super-heterodyne operation.

In some embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input basebandsignals may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of theembodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternateembodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signalsmay be digital baseband signals. In these alternate embodiments, the RFcircuitry 902 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) anddigital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry and the baseband circuitry904 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RFcircuitry 902.

In some dual-mode embodiments, a separate radio IC circuitry may beprovided for processing signals for each spectrum, although the scope ofthe embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 928 may be a fractional-Nsynthesizer or a fractional N/N+1 synthesizer, although the scope of theembodiments is not limited in this respect as other types of frequencysynthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuitry 928 maybe a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizercomprising a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

The synthesizer circuitry 928 may be configured to synthesize an outputfrequency for use by the mixer circuitry 922 of the RF circuitry 902based on a frequency input and a divider control input. In someembodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 928 may be a fractional N/N+1synthesizer.

In some embodiments, frequency input may be provided by a voltagecontrolled oscillator (VCO), although that is not a requirement. Dividercontrol input may be provided by either the baseband circuitry 904 orthe application circuitry 906 (such as an applications processor)depending on the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, adivider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a look-up tablebased on a channel indicated by the application circuitry 906.

Synthesizer circuitry 928 of the RF circuitry 902 may include a divider,a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer and a phase accumulator. Insome embodiments, the divider may be a dual modulus divider (DMD) andthe phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). In someembodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal byeither N or N+1 (e.g., based on a carry out) to provide a fractionaldivision ratio. In some example embodiments, the DLL may include a setof cascaded, tunable, delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pumpand a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments, the delay elements may beconfigured to break a VCO period up into Nd equal packets of phase,where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way,the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delaythrough the delay line is one VCO cycle.

In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 928 may be configured togenerate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in otherembodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrierfrequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrierfrequency) and used in conjunction with quadrature generator and dividercircuitry to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency withmultiple different phases with respect to each other. In someembodiments, the output frequency may be a LO frequency (fLO). In someembodiments, the RF circuitry 902 may include an IQ/polar converter.

The FEM circuitry 932 may include a receive signal path which mayinclude circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from oneor more antennas 930, amplify the received signals and provide theamplified versions of the received signals to the RF circuitry 902 forfurther processing. The FEM circuitry 932 may also include a transmitsignal path which may include circuitry configured to amplify signalsfor transmission provided by the RF circuitry 902 for transmission byone or more of the one or more antennas 930. In various embodiments, theamplification through the transmit or receive signal paths may be donesolely in the RF circuitry 902, solely in the FEM circuitry 932, or inboth the RF circuitry 902 and the FEM circuitry 932.

In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 932 may include a TX/RX switch toswitch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEMcircuitry 932 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signalpath. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry 932 may include anLNA to amplify received RF signals and provide the amplified received RFsignals as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 902). The transmitsignal path of the FEM circuitry 932 may include a power amplifier (PA)to amplify input RF signals (e.g., provided by the RF circuitry 902),and one or more filters to generate RF signals for subsequenttransmission (e.g., by one or more of the one or more antennas 930).

In some embodiments, the PMC 934 may manage power provided to thebaseband circuitry 904. In particular, the PMC 934 may controlpower-source selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-to-DCconversion. The PMC 934 may often be included when the device 900 iscapable of being powered by a battery, for example, when the device 900is included in a UE. The PMC 934 may increase the power conversionefficiency while providing desirable implementation size and heatdissipation characteristics.

FIG. 9 shows the PMC 934 coupled only with the baseband circuitry 904.However, in other embodiments, the PMC 934 may be additionally oralternatively coupled with, and perform similar power managementoperations for, other components such as, but not limited to, theapplication circuitry 906, the RF circuitry 902, or the FEM circuitry932.

In some embodiments, the PMC 934 may control, or otherwise be part of,various power saving mechanisms of the device 900. For example, if thedevice 900 is in an RRC_Connected state, where it is still connected tothe RAN node as it expects to receive traffic shortly, then it may entera state known as Discontinuous Reception Mode (DRX) after a period ofinactivity. During this state, the device 900 may power down for briefintervals of time and thus save power.

If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time,then the device 900 may transition off to an RRC_Idle state, where itdisconnects from the network and does not perform operations such aschannel quality feedback, handover, etc. The device 900 goes into a verylow power state and it performs paging where again it periodically wakesup to listen to the network and then powers down again. The device 900may not receive data in this state, and in order to receive data, ittransitions back to an RRC_Connected state.

An additional power saving mode may allow a device to be unavailable tothe network for periods longer than a paging interval (ranging fromseconds to a few hours). During this time, the device is totallyunreachable to the network and may power down completely. Any data sentduring this time incurs a large delay and it is assumed the delay isacceptable.

Processors of the application circuitry 906 and processors of thebaseband circuitry 904 may be used to execute elements of one or moreinstances of a protocol stack. For example, processors of the basebandcircuitry 904, alone or in combination, may be used to execute Layer 3,Layer 2, or Layer 1 functionality, while processors of the applicationcircuitry 906 may utilize data (e.g., packet data) received from theselayers and further execute Layer 4 functionality (e.g., transmissioncommunication protocol (TCP) and user datagram protocol (UDP) layers).As referred to herein, Layer 3 may comprise a radio resource control(RRC) layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein,Layer 2 may comprise a medium access control (MAC) layer, a radio linkcontrol (RLC) layer, and a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP)layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 1may comprise a physical (PHY) layer of a UE/RAN node, described infurther detail below.

FIG. 10 illustrates example interfaces 1000 of baseband circuitry inaccordance with some embodiments. As discussed above, the basebandcircuitry 904 of FIG. 9 may comprise 3G baseband processor 908, 4Gbaseband processor 910, 5G baseband processor 912, other basebandprocessor(s) 914, CPU 916, and a memory 920 utilized by said processors.As illustrated, each of the processors may include a respective memoryinterface 1002 to send/receive data to/from the memory 920.

The baseband circuitry 904 may further include one or more interfaces tocommunicatively couple to other circuitries/devices, such as a memoryinterface 1004 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from memoryexternal to the baseband circuitry 904), an application circuitryinterface 1006 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from theapplication circuitry 906 of FIG. 9 ), an RF circuitry interface 1008(e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from RF circuitry 902 ofFIG. 9 ), a wireless hardware connectivity interface 1010 (e.g., aninterface to send/receive data to/from Near Field Communication (NFC)components, Bluetooth® components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi®components, and other communication components), and a power managementinterface 1012 (e.g., an interface to send/receive power or controlsignals to/from the PMC 934.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating components 1100, according tosome example embodiments, able to read instructions from amachine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitorymachine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of themethodologies discussed herein. Specifically, FIG. 11 shows adiagrammatic representation of hardware resources 1102 including one ormore processors 1106 (or processor cores), one or more memory/storagedevices 1114, and one or more communication resources 1124, each ofwhich may be communicatively coupled via a bus 1116. For embodimentswhere node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 1122 maybe executed to provide an execution environment for one or more networkslices/sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 1102.

The processors 1106 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a reducedinstruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction setcomputing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a digitalsignal processor (DSP) such as a baseband processor, an applicationspecific integrated circuit (ASIC), a radio-frequency integrated circuit(RFIC), another processor, or any suitable combination thereof) mayinclude, for example, a processor 1108 and a processor 1110.

The memory/storage devices 1114 may include main memory, disk storage,or any suitable combination thereof. The memory/storage devices 1114 mayinclude, but are not limited to any type of volatile or non-volatilememory such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random-accessmemory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM),electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), Flashmemory, solid-state storage, etc.

The communication resources 1124 may include interconnection or networkinterface components or other suitable devices to communicate with oneor more peripheral devices 1104 or one or more databases 1120 via anetwork 1118. For example, the communication resources 1124 may includewired communication components (e.g., for coupling via a UniversalSerial Bus (USB)), cellular communication components, NFC components,Bluetooth® components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components,and other communication components.

Instructions 1112 may comprise software, a program, an application, anapplet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of theprocessors 1106 to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein. The instructions 1112 may reside, completely orpartially, within at least one of the processors 1106 (e.g., within theprocessor's cache memory), the memory/storage devices 1114, or anysuitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of theinstructions 1112 may be transferred to the hardware resources 1102 fromany combination of the peripheral devices 1104 or the databases 1120.Accordingly, the memory of the processors 1106, the memory/storagedevices 1114, the peripheral devices 1104, and the databases 1120 areexamples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components set forth inone or more of the preceding figures may be configured to perform one ormore operations, techniques, processes, and/or methods as set forth inthe Example Section below. For example, the baseband circuitry asdescribed above in connection with one or more of the preceding figuresmay be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of theexamples set forth below. For another example, circuitry associated witha UE, base station, network element, etc. as described above inconnection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configuredto operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forthbelow in the example section.

EXAMPLE SECTION

The following examples pertain to further embodiments.

-   -   Example 1A may include an apparatus of a user equipment (UE)        comprising: one or more processors; and a memory storing        instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors,        configure the apparatus to: encode a first hybrid automatic        repeat request acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) and a second HARQ-ACK        within a single slot for transmission to a base station, the        first HARQ-ACK being transmitted via a first physical uplink        control channel (PUCCH) and the second HARQ-ACK being        transmitted via a second PUCCH; and based on encoding the first        HARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACK within the single slot, respond        to one or more additional uplink (UL) signals colliding with at        least one of the first HARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACK within        the single slot based on a configuration of the UE.    -   Example 2A may include the apparatus of example 1A, wherein the        configuration of the UE comprises refrain from transmitting        addition UL signals via PUCCH that would collide with at least        one of the first HARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACK within the        single slot.    -   Example 3A may include the apparatus of example 1A, wherein the        configuration of the UE comprises refrain from transmitting        addition UL signals via PUSCH that would collide with at least        one of the first HARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACK within the        single slot.    -   Example 4A may include the apparatus of example 1A, wherein the        instructions further configure the apparatus to, when the        configuration of the UE comprises transmit an additional UL        signal via PUCCH that would collide with at least one of the        first HARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACK within the single slot:        multiplexing both the first HARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACK;        and multiplexing the additional UL signal via PUCCH with the        multiplexed first and second HARQ-ACKs.    -   Example 5A may include the apparatus of example 1A, wherein the        instructions further configure the apparatus to, when the        configuration of the UE comprises transmit an additional UL        signal via PUCCH that would collide with at least one of the        first HARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACK within the single slot:        multiplexing both the first HARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACK;        multiplexing the first HARQ-ACK with the UL signal via PUCCH, if        a payload of the UL signal via PUCCH is limited; or multiplexing        the second HARQ-ACK with the UL signal via PUCCH, if a payload        of the UL signal via PUCCH is limited.    -   Example 6A may include the apparatus of example 1A, wherein the        instructions further configure the apparatus to, when the        configuration of the UE comprises transmit a first additional UL        signal via PUCCH and a second additional UL signal via PUSCH        that would collide with at least one of the first HARQ-ACK and        the second HARQ-ACK within the single slot: multiplexing both        the first HARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACK; multiplexing the        first additional UL signal via PUCCH with the multiplexed first        and second HARQ-ACKs; and multiplexing the second additional UL        signal via PUSCH with the multiplexed first and second HARQ-ACKs        and the multiplexed first additional UL signal via PUCCH.    -   Example 7A may include the apparatus of example 1A, wherein the        instructions further configure the apparatus to, when the        configuration of the UE comprises transmit a first additional UL        signal via PUCCH and a second additional UL signal via PUSCH        that would collide with at least one of the first HARQ-ACK and        the second HARQ-ACK within the single slot: multiplexing both        the first HARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACK; multiplexing the        first HARQ-ACK with the second additional UL signal via PUSCH,        if a payload of the second additional UL signal via PUSCH is        limited; or multiplexing the second HARQ-ACK with the second        additional UL signal via PUSCH, if a payload of the second        additional UL signal via PUSCH is limited.    -   Example 8A may include a method for wireless communications by a        user equipment (UE), comprising: encoding a first hybrid        automatic repeat request acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) and a second        HARQ-ACK within a single slot for transmission to a base        station, the first HARQ-ACK being transmitted via a first        physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and the second HARQ-ACK        being transmitted via a second PUCCH; and based on encoding the        first HARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACK within the single slot,        responding to one or more additional uplink (UL) signals        colliding with at least one of the first HARQ-ACK and the second        HARQ-ACK within the single slot based on a configuration of the        UE.    -   Example 9A may include the method of example 8A, wherein the        configuration of the UE comprises refraining from transmitting        addition UL signals via PUCCH that would collide with at least        one of the first HARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACK within the        single slot.    -   Example 10A may include the method of example 8A, wherein the        configuration of the UE comprises refraining from transmitting        addition UL signals via PUSCH that would collide with at least        one of the first HARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACK within the        single slot.    -   Example 11A may include the method of example 8A, further        comprising, when the configuration of the UE comprises        transmitting an additional UL signal via PUCCH that would        collide with at least one of the first HARQ-ACK and the second        HARQ-ACK within the single slot: multiplexing both the first        HARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACK; and multiplexing the        additional UL signal via PUCCH with the multiplexed first and        second HARQ-ACKs.    -   Example 12A may include the method of example 8A, further        comprising, when the configuration of the UE comprises        transmitting an additional UL signal via PUCCH that would        collide with at least one of the first HARQ-ACK and the second        HARQ-ACK within the single slot: multiplexing both the first        HARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACK; multiplexing the first        HARQ-ACK with the UL signal via PUCCH, if a payload of the UL        signal via PUCCH is limited; or multiplexing the second HARQ-ACK        with the UL signal via PUCCH, if a payload of the UL signal via        PUCCH is limited.    -   Example 13A may include the method of example 8A, further        comprising, when the configuration of the UE comprises        transmitting a first additional UL signal via PUCCH and a second        additional UL signal via PUSCH that would collide with at least        one of the first HARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACK within the        single slot: multiplexing both the first HARQ-ACK and the second        HARQ-ACK; multiplexing the first additional UL signal via PUCCH        with the multiplexed first and second HARQ-ACKs; and        multiplexing the second additional UL signal via PUSCH with the        multiplexed first and second HARQ-ACKs and the multiplexed first        additional UL signal via PUCCH.    -   Example 14A may include the method of example 8A, further        comprising, when the configuration of the UE comprises        transmitting a first additional UL signal via PUCCH and a second        additional UL signal via PUSCH that would collide with at least        one of the first HARQ-ACK and the second HARQ-ACK within the        single slot: multiplexing both the first HARQ-ACK and the second        HARQ-ACK; multiplexing the first HARQ-ACK with the second        additional UL signal via PUSCH, if a payload of the second        additional UL signal via PUSCH is limited; or multiplexing the        second HARQ-ACK with the second additional UL signal via PUSCH,        if a payload of the second additional UL signal via PUSCH is        limited.    -   Example 15A may include an apparatus of a user equipment (UE)        comprising: one or more processors; and a memory storing        instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors,        configure the apparatus to: generate a Type I hybrid automatic        repeat request-acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) codebook for time        domain multiplexing Scheme A (TDMSchemeA), including: decode a        first DL signal received via a first PDSCH and a second DL        signal received via a second PDSCH; process a K1 offset table        associated with determining when to transmit at least one        HARQ-ACK in response to decoding the first DL signal received        via the first PDSCH and the second DL signal received via the        second PDSCH, the K1 offset table being received from a base        station; process a Start and Length Indicator of PDSCH with a        Slot (SLIV) table associated with determining a precise location        of at least one of the first DL signal received via the first        PDSCH and the second DL signal received via the second PDSCH        within a time domain, the SLIV table being received from the        base station; and reserve a HARQ-ACK in the generated HARQ-ACK        codebook based on a validity of one or both of the first PDSCH        and the second PDSCH, wherein a given PDSCH is valid when the        given PDSCH does not collide with any uplink (UL) signal.    -   Example 16A may include the apparatus of example 15A, wherein        reserve the HARQ-ACK in the codebook based on the validity of        one or both of the first PDSCH and the second PDSCH comprises        reserving the HARQ-ACK in the codebook only when the first PDSCH        is valid.    -   Example 17A may include the apparatus of example 15A, wherein        reserve the HARQ-ACK in the codebook based on the validity of        one or both of the first PDSCH and the second PDSCH comprises        reserving the HARQ-ACK in the codebook only when the second        PDSCH is valid.    -   Example 18A may include the apparatus of example 15A, wherein        reserve the HARQ-ACK in the codebook based on the validity of        one or both of the first PDSCH and the second PDSCH comprises        reserving the HARQ-ACK in the codebook only when both the first        PDSCH and the second PDSCH are valid.    -   Example 19A may include a method for wireless communications by        a user equipment (UE), comprising: generating a Type I hybrid        automatic repeat request-acknowledgment (HARQ-ACK) codebook for        time domain multiplexing Scheme A (TDMSchemeA), including:        decoding a first DL signal received via a first PDSCH and a        second DL signal received via a second PDSCH; processing a K1        offset table associated with determining when to transmit at        least one HARQ-ACK in response to decoding the first DL signal        received via the first PDSCH and the second DL signal received        via the second PDSCH, the K1 offset table being received from a        base station; processing a Start and Length Indicator of PDSCH        with a Slot (SLIV) table associated with determining a precise        location of at least one of the first DL signal received via the        first PDSCH and the second DL signal received via the second        PDSCH within a time domain, the SLIV table being received from        the base station; and reserving a HARQ-ACK in the generated        HARQ-ACK codebook based on a validity of one or both of the        first PDSCH and the second PDSCH, wherein a given PDSCH is valid        when the given PDSCH does not collide with any uplink (UL)        signal.    -   Example 20A may include the method of example 19A, wherein        reserving the HARQ-ACK in the codebook based on the validity of        one or both of the first PDSCH and the second PDSCH comprises        reserving the HARQ-ACK in the codebook only when the first PDSCH        is valid.    -   Example 21A may include the method of example 19A, wherein        reserving the HARQ-ACK in the codebook based on the validity of        one or both of the first PDSCH and the second PDSCH comprises        reserving the HARQ-ACK in the codebook only when the second        PDSCH is valid.    -   Example 22A may include the method of example 19A, wherein        reserving the HARQ-ACK in the codebook based on the validity of        one or both of the first PDSCH and the second PDSCH comprises        reserving the HARQ-ACK in the codebook only when both the first        PDSCH and the second PDSCH are valid.    -   Example 23A may include a computer-readable storage medium, the        computer-readable storage medium including instructions that        when executed by one or more processors of a user equipment (UE)        configured to determine a default TCI for decoding downlink        signals via PDSCH, cause the one or more processors to: decode a        first downlink (DL) signal received via physical downlink        control channel (PDCCH) from a scheduling cell, wherein decoding        includes determining a multi-transmission and reception point        (MTRP) configuration for both the scheduling cell and a        scheduled cell scheduled by the scheduling cell; based at least        partially on the determined MTRP configuration of either or both        of the scheduling cell and the scheduled cell, determine a        default transmission configuration indicator (TCI) for cross        carrier scheduling (CCS) with MTRP; and decode a second DL        signal received via physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH)        corresponding to the first DL signal received via PDCCH        utilizing the determined default TCI.    -   Example 24A may include the computer-readable storage medium of        example 23A, wherein when determine the default TCI is based at        least partially on the MTRP configuration of the scheduling        cell, the default TCI comprises a control resource set        (CORESET), in a most recent PDCCH monitoring slot, having a        lowest identification (ID) and a CORESETPoolIndex value that        comprise a same value as a CORESETPoolIndex value of a        scheduling DCI.    -   Example 25A may include the computer-readable storage medium of        example 23A, wherein determining the default TCI is based at        least partially on the DCI MTRP configuration of the scheduled        cell.    -   Example 26A may include the computer-readable storage medium of        example 25A, wherein when the determined MTRP configuration of        the scheduled cell supports multi-DCI MTRP, the default TCI        comprises a control resource set (CORESET), in a most recent        PDCCH monitor slot, having a lowest identification (ID) and a        CORESETPoolIndex value that comprises a same value as a        CORESETPoolIndex value of a scheduling downlink control        information (DCI).    -   Example 27A may include the computer-readable storage medium of        example 25A, wherein when the MTRP configuration of the        scheduled cell does not support multi-DCI MTRP, the default TCI        further comprises: a control resource set (CORESET) having a        lowest identification (ID) in a most recent PDCCH monitor slot;        or an activated PDSCH TCI with a lowest index in the scheduled        cell.    -   Example 28A may include the computer-readable storage medium of        example 23A, wherein when the determined MTRP configuration of        the scheduled cell and the scheduling cell both support        single-DCI MTRP, the default TCI comprises an activated TCI        codepoint for PDSCH with a lowest identification (ID) that has        two TCI states in the scheduling cell.    -   Example 29A may include the computer-readable storage medium of        example 23A, wherein when the determined MTRP configuration of        the scheduled cell and the scheduling cell both support        single-DCI MTRP, the default TCI comprises a activated TCI        codepoint for PDSCH with a lowest identification (ID) that has        two TCI states in the scheduled cell.    -   Example 30A may include the computer-readable storage medium of        example 23A, wherein when the determined MTRP configuration of        the scheduled cell and the scheduling cell both support        single-DCI MTRP, and neither a activated TCI codepoint for PDSCH        in the scheduled cell nor a activated TCI codepoint for PDSCH in        the scheduling cell includes two TCI states, the default TCI        comprises: the activated TCI codepoint for PDSCH in the        scheduled cell or the activated TCI codepoint for PDSCH in the        scheduling cell that has the lowest identification (ID); a        control resource set (CORESET) having a lowest ID; or a CORESET        having a lowest ID in a latest PDCCH monitor slot.    -   Example 31A may include a method for wireless communications by        a user equipment (UE), comprising: decoding a first        downlink (DL) signal received via physical downlink control        channel (PDCCH) from a scheduling cell, wherein decoding        includes determining a multi-transmission and reception point        (MTRP) configuration for both the scheduling cell and a        scheduled cell scheduled by the scheduling cell; based at least        partially on the determined MTRP configuration of either or both        of the scheduling cell and the scheduled cell, determining a        default transmission configuration indicator (TCI) for cross        carrier scheduling (CCS) with MTRP; and decoding a second DL        signal received via physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH)        corresponding to the first DL signal received via PDCCH        utilizing the determined default TCI.    -   Example 32A may include the method of example 31A, wherein when        determining the default TCI is based at least partially on the        MTRP configuration of the scheduling cell, the default TCI        comprises a control resource set (CORESET), in a most recent        PDCCH monitoring slot, having a lowest identification (ID) and a        CORESETPoolIndex value that comprise a same value as a        CORESETPoolIndex value of a scheduling DCI.    -   Example 33A may include the method of example 31A, wherein        determining the default TCI is based at least partially on the        DCI MTRP configuration of the scheduled cell.    -   Example 34A may include the method of example 33A, wherein when        the determined MTRP configuration of the scheduled cell supports        multi-DCI MTRP, the default TCI comprises a control resource set        (CORESET), in a most recent PDCCH monitoring slot, having a        lowest identification (ID) and a CORESETPoolIndex value that        comprises a same value as a CORESETPoolIndex value of a        scheduling downlink control information (DCI).    -   Example 35A may include the method of example 33A, wherein when        the MTRP configuration of the scheduled cell does not support        multi-DCI MTRP, the default TCI further comprises: a control        resource set (CORESET) having a lowest identification (ID) in a        most recent PDCCH monitoring slot; or an activated PDSCH TCI        with a lowest index in the scheduled cell.    -   Example 36A may include the method of example 31A, wherein when        the determined MTRP configuration of the scheduled cell and the        scheduling cell both support single-DCI MTRP, the default TCI        comprises an activated TCI codepoint for PDSCH with a lowest        identification (ID) that has two TCI states in the scheduling        cell.    -   Example 37A may include the method of example 31A, wherein when        the determined MTRP configuration of the scheduled cell and the        scheduling cell both support single-DCI MTRP, the default TCI        comprises a activated TCI codepoint for PDSCH with a lowest        identification (ID) that has two TCI states in the scheduled        cell.    -   Example 38A may include the method of example 31A, wherein when        the determined MTRP configuration of the scheduled cell and the        scheduling cell both support single-DCI MTRP, and neither a        activated TCI codepoint for PDSCH in the scheduled cell nor a        activated TCI codepoint for PDSCH in the scheduling cell        includes two TCI states, the default TCI comprises: the        activated TCI codepoint for PDSCH in the scheduled cell or the        activated TCI codepoint for PDSCH in the scheduling cell that        has the lowest identification (ID); a control resource set        (CORESET) having a lowest ID; or a CORESET having a lowest ID in        a latest PDCCH monitoring slot.    -   Example 1B may include an apparatus comprising means to perform        one or more elements of a method described in or related to any        of the above Examples, or any other method or process described        herein.    -   Example 2B may include one or more non-transitory        computer-readable media comprising instructions to cause an        electronic device, upon execution of the instructions by one or        more processors of the electronic device, to perform one or more        elements of a method described in or related to any of the above        Examples, or any other method or process described herein.    -   Example 3B may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules,        or circuitry to perform one or more elements of a method        described in or related to any of the above Examples, or any        other method or process described herein.    -   Example 4B may include a method, technique, or process as        described in or related to any of the above Examples, or        portions or parts thereof.    -   Example 5B may include an apparatus comprising: one or more        processors and one or more computer-readable media comprising        instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors,        cause the one or more processors to perform the method,        techniques, or process as described in or related to any of the        above Examples, or portions thereof.    -   Example 6B may include a signal as described in or related to        any of the above Examples, or portions or parts thereof.    -   Example 7B may include a datagram, packet, frame, segment,        protocol data unit (PDU), or message as described in or related        to any of the above Examples, or portions or parts thereof, or        otherwise described in the present disclosure.    -   Example 8B may include a signal encoded with data as described        in or related to any of the above Examples, or portions or parts        thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.    -   Example 9B may include a signal encoded with a datagram, packet,        frame, segment, PDU, or message as described in or related to        any of the above Examples, or portions or parts thereof, or        otherwise described in the present disclosure.    -   Example 10B may include an electromagnetic signal carrying        computer-readable instructions, wherein execution of the        computer-readable instructions by one or more processors is to        cause the one or more processors to perform the method,        techniques, or process as described in or related to any of the        above Examples, or portions thereof.    -   Example 11B may include a computer program comprising        instructions, wherein execution of the program by a processing        element is to cause the processing element to carry out the        method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any        of the above Examples, or portions thereof.    -   Example 12B may include a signal in a wireless network as shown        and described herein.    -   Example 13B may include a method of communicating in a wireless        network as shown and described herein.    -   Example 14B may include a system for providing wireless        communication as shown and described herein.    -   Example 15B may include a device for providing wireless        communication as shown and described herein.

Any of the above described examples may be combined with any otherexample (or combination of examples), unless explicitly statedotherwise. The foregoing description of one or more implementationsprovides illustration and description, but is not intended to beexhaustive or to limit the scope of embodiments to the precise formdisclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of theabove teachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments.

Embodiments and implementations of the systems and methods describedherein may include various operations, which may be embodied inmachine-executable instructions to be executed by a computer system. Acomputer system may include one or more general-purpose orspecial-purpose computers (or other electronic devices). The computersystem may include hardware components that include specific logic forperforming the operations or may include a combination of hardware,software, and/or firmware.

It should be recognized that the systems described herein includedescriptions of specific embodiments. These embodiments can be combinedinto single systems, partially combined into other systems, split intomultiple systems or divided or combined in other ways. In addition, itis contemplated that parameters, attributes, aspects, etc. of oneembodiment can be used in another embodiment. The parameters,attributes, aspects, etc. are merely described in one or moreembodiments for clarity, and it is recognized that the parameters,attributes, aspects, etc. can be combined with or substituted forparameters, attributes, aspects, etc. of another embodiment unlessspecifically disclaimed herein.

It is well understood that the use of personally identifiableinformation should follow privacy policies and practices that aregenerally recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or governmentalrequirements for maintaining the privacy of users. In particular,personally identifiable information data should be managed and handledso as to minimize risks of unintentional or unauthorized access or use,and the nature of authorized use should be clearly indicated to users.

Although the foregoing has been described in some detail for purposes ofclarity, it will be apparent that certain changes and modifications maybe made without departing from the principles thereof. It should benoted that there are many alternative ways of implementing both theprocesses and apparatuses described herein. Accordingly, the presentembodiments are to be considered illustrative and not restrictive, andthe description is not to be limited to the details given herein, butmay be modified within the scope and equivalents of the appended claims.

1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, the non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium including instructions that whenexecuted by one or more processors of a user equipment (UE), cause theone or more processors to: decode a first downlink (DL) signal receivedvia physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) from a scheduling cell,wherein decoding includes determining a multi-transmission and receptionpoint (MTRP) configuration for both the scheduling cell and a scheduledcell scheduled by the scheduling cell; based at least partially on theMTRP configuration of either or both of the scheduling cell and thescheduled cell, determine a default transmission configuration indicator(TCI) for cross carrier scheduling (CCS) with MTRP; and decode a secondDL signal received via physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH)corresponding to the first DL signal received via the PDCCH utilizingthe default TCI.
 2. The non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumof claim 1, wherein when the default TCI is based at least partially onthe MTRP configuration of the scheduling cell, the default TCI comprisesa control resource set (CORESET), in a most recent PDCCH monitoringslot, having a lowest identification (ID) and a CORESETPoolIndex valuethat comprises a same value as a CORESETPoolIndex value of a schedulingdownlink control information (DCI).
 3. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein determining thedefault TCI is based at least partially on a downlink controlinformation (DCI) MTRP configuration of the scheduled cell.
 4. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 3, wherein whenthe MTRP configuration of the scheduled cell supports multi-DCI MTRP,the default TCI comprises a control resource set (CORESET), in a mostrecent PDCCH monitor slot, having a lowest identification (ID) and aCORESETPoolIndex value that comprises a same value as a CORESETPoolIndexvalue of a scheduling DCI.
 5. The non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium of claim 3, wherein when the MTRP configuration of thescheduled cell does not support multi-DCI MTRP, the default TCI furthercomprises: a control resource set (CORESET) having a lowestidentification (ID) in a most recent PDCCH monitor slot; or an activatedPDSCH TCI with a lowest index in the scheduled cell.
 6. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein whenthe MTRP configuration of the scheduled cell and the scheduling cellboth support single-downlink control information (DCI) MTRP, the defaultTCI comprises an activated TCI codepoint for the PDSCH with a lowestidentification (ID) that has two TCI states in the scheduling cell. 7.The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, whereinwhen the MTRP configuration of the scheduled cell and the schedulingcell both support single-downlink control information (DCI) MTRP, thedefault TCI comprises an activated TCI codepoint for the PDSCH with alowest identification (ID) that has two TCI states in the scheduledcell.
 8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1,wherein when the MTRP configuration of the scheduled cell and thescheduling cell both support single-downlink control information (DCI)MTRP, and neither a first activated TCI codepoint for the PDSCH in thescheduled cell nor a second activated TCI codepoint for the PDSCH in thescheduling cell includes two TCI states, the default TCI comprises: thefirst activated TCI codepoint for the PDSCH in the scheduled cell or thesecond activated TCI codepoint for the PDSCH in the scheduling cell thathas a first lowest identification (ID); a control resource set (CORESET)having a second lowest ID; or a CORESET having a third lowest ID in alatest PDCCH monitor slot.
 9. A method for wireless communications by auser equipment (UE), comprising: decoding a first downlink (DL) signalreceived via physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) from a schedulingcell, wherein decoding includes determining a multi-transmission andreception point (MTRP) configuration for both the scheduling cell and ascheduled cell scheduled by the scheduling cell; based at leastpartially on the MTRP configuration of either or both of the schedulingcell and the scheduled cell, determining a default transmissionconfiguration indicator (TCI) for cross carrier scheduling (CCS) withMTRP; and decoding a second DL signal received via physical downlinkshared channel (PDSCH) corresponding to the first DL signal received viathe PDCCH utilizing the default TCI.
 10. The method of claim 9, whereinwhen the default TCI is based at least partially on the MTRPconfiguration of the scheduling cell, the default TCI comprises acontrol resource set (CORESET), in a most recent PDCCH monitoring slot,having a lowest identification (ID) and a CORESETPoolIndex value thatcomprises a same value as a CORESETPoolIndex value of a schedulingdownlink control information (DCI).
 11. The method of claim 9, whereindetermining the default TCI is based at least partially on a downlinkcontrol information (DCI) MTRP configuration of the scheduled cell. 12.The method of claim 11, wherein when the MTRP configuration of thescheduled cell supports multi-DCI MTRP, the default TCI comprises acontrol resource set (CORESET), in a most recent PDCCH monitoring slot,having a lowest identification (ID) and a CORESETPoolIndex value thatcomprises a same value as a CORESETPoolIndex value of a scheduling DCI.13. The method of claim 11, wherein when the MTRP configuration of thescheduled cell does not support multi-DCI MTRP, the default TCI furthercomprises: a control resource set (CORESET) having a lowestidentification (ID) in a most recent PDCCH monitoring slot; or anactivated PDSCH TCI with a lowest index in the scheduled cell.
 14. Themethod of claim 9, wherein when the MTRP configuration of the scheduledcell and the scheduling cell both support single-downlink controlinformation (DCI) MTRP, the default TCI comprises an activated TCIcodepoint for the PDSCH with a lowest identification (ID) that has twoTCI states in the scheduling cell.
 15. The method of claim 9, whereinwhen the MTRP configuration of the scheduled cell and the schedulingcell both support single-downlink control information (DCI) MTRP, thedefault TCI comprises an activated TCI codepoint for the PDSCH with alowest identification (ID) that has two TCI states in the scheduledcell.
 16. The method of claim 9, wherein when the MTRP configuration ofthe scheduled cell and the scheduling cell both support single-downlinkcontrol information (DCI) MTRP, and neither a first activated TCIcodepoint for the PDSCH in the scheduled cell nor a second activated TCIcodepoint for the PDSCH in the scheduling cell includes two TCI states,the default TCI comprises: the first activated TCI codepoint for thePDSCH in the scheduled cell or the second activated TCI codepoint forthe PDSCH in the scheduling cell that has a first lowest identification(ID); a control resource set (CORESET) having a second lowest ID; or aCORESET having a third lowest ID in a latest PDCCH monitoring slot. 17.An apparatus of a user equipment (UE), the apparatus comprising: amemory to store a multi-transmission and reception point (MTRP)configuration; and one or more processors to: decode a first downlink(DL) signal received via physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) froma scheduling cell, wherein decoding includes determining the MTRPconfiguration for both the scheduling cell and a scheduled cellscheduled by the scheduling cell; based at least partially on the MTRPconfiguration of either or both of the scheduling cell and the scheduledcell, determine a default transmission configuration indicator (TCI) forcross carrier scheduling (CCS) with MTRP; and decode a second DL signalreceived via physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) corresponding tothe first DL signal received via the PDCCH utilizing the default TCI.18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein when the default TCI is based atleast partially on the MTRP configuration of the scheduling cell, thedefault TCI comprises a control resource set (CORESET), in a most recentPDCCH monitoring slot, having a lowest identification (ID) and aCORESETPoolIndex value that comprises a same value as a CORESETPoolIndexvalue of a scheduling downlink control information (DCI).
 19. Theapparatus of claim 17, wherein determining the default TCI is based atleast partially on a downlink control information (DCI) MTRPconfiguration of the scheduled cell.
 20. The apparatus of claim 19,wherein when the MTRP configuration of the scheduled cell supportsmulti-DCI MTRP, the default TCI comprises a control resource set(CORESET), in a most recent PDCCH monitor slot, having a lowestidentification (ID) and a CORESETPoolIndex value that comprises a samevalue as a CORESETPoolIndex value of a scheduling DCI.